corners of the room together with two lean cats covered with wood
ashes. 'Get along! Sh-sh! Come this way, Akim Semyonitch, this way!'
he went on, making his guest sit down, 'and won't you take something?'
'I tell you what, Yefrem,' Akim articulated at last, 'could I have
some vodka?'
Yefrem pricked up his ears.
'Vodka? You can. I've none in the house, but I will run this minute to
Father Fyodor's. He always has it.... I'll be back in no time.'
And he snatched up his cap with earflaps.
'Bring plenty, I'll pay for it,' Akim shouted after him. 'I've still
money enough for that.'
'I'll be back in no time,' Yefrem repeated again as he went out of the
door. He certainly did return very quickly with two bottles under his
arm, of which one was already uncorked, put them on the table, brought
two little green glasses, part of a loaf and some salt.
'Now this is what I like,' he kept repeating, as he sat down opposite
Akim. 'Why grieve?' He poured out a glass for Akim and another for
himself and began talking freely. Avdotya's conduct had perplexed him.
'It's a strange business, really,' he said, 'how did it happen? He
must have bewitched her, I suppose? It shows how strictly one must
look after a wife! You want to keep a firm hand over her. All the same
it wouldn't be amiss for you to go home; I expect you have got a lot
of belongings there still.' Yefrem added much more to the same effect;
he did not like to be silent when he was drinking.
This is what was happening an hour later in Yefrem's house. Akim, who
had not answered a word to the questions and observations of his
talkative host but had merely gone on drinking glass after glass, was
sleeping on the stove, crimson in the face, a heavy, oppressive sleep;
the children were looking at him in wonder, and Yefrem ... Yefrem,
alas, was asleep, too, but in a cold little lumber room in which he
had been locked by his wife, a woman of very masculine and powerful
physique. He had gone to her in the shed and begun threatening her or
telling her some tale, but had expressed himself so unintelligibly and
incoherently that she instantly saw what was the matter, took him by
the collar and deposited him in a suitable place. He slept in the
lumber room, however, very soundly and even serenely. Such is the
effect of habit.
* * * * *
Kirillovna had not quite accurately repeated to Lizaveta Prohorovna
her conversation with Akim ... the same may be said of Avdotya. Naum
had not turned her out, though she had told Akim that he had; he had
no right to turn her out. He was bound to give the former owners time
to pack up. An explanation of quite a different character took place
between him and Avdotya.
When Akim had rushed out crying that he would go to the mistress,
Avdotya had turned to Naum, stared at him open-eyed and clasped her
hands.
'Good heavens!' she cried, 'Naum Ivanitch, what does this mean? You've
bought our inn?'
'Well, what of it?' he replied. 'I have.'
Avdotya was silent for a while; then she suddenly started.
'So that is what you wanted the money for?'
'You are quite right there. Hullo, I believe your husband has gone off
with my horse,' he added, hearing the rumble of the wheels. 'He is a
smart fellow!'
'But it's robbery!' wailed Avdotya. 'Why, it's our money, my husband's
money and the inn is ours....'
'No, Avdotya Arefyevna,' Naum interrupted her, 'the inn was not yours.
What's the use of saying that? The inn was on your mistress's land, so
