laughed, and several times, to the great offence of the wardrobe-maid,
forced her to repeat "how he bent your head down with his heavy hand,"
and next day she sent Gerasim a rouble. She looked on him with favor as
a strong and faithful watchman. Gerasim stood in considerable awe of
her, but, all the same, he had hopes of her favor, and was preparing to
go to her with a petition for leave to marry Tatiana. He was only
waiting for a new coat, promised him by the steward, to present a proper
appearance before his mistress, when this same mistress suddenly took it
into her head to marry Tatiana to Kapiton.

The reader will now readily understand the perturbation of mind that
overtook the steward Gavrila after his conversation with his mistress.
"My lady," he thought, as he sat at the window, "favors Gerasim, to be
sure"--(Gavrila was well aware of this, and that was why he himself
looked on him with an indulgent eye)--"still he is a speechless
creature. I could not, indeed, put it before the mistress that Gerasim's
courting Tatiana. But, after all, it's true enough; he's a queer sort of
husband. But on the other hand, that devil, God forgive me, has only got
to find out they're marrying Tatiana to Kapiton, he'll smash up
everything in the house, 'pon my soul! There's no reasoning with him;
why, he's such a devil, God forgive my sins, there's no getting over him
nohow . . . 'pon my soul!"

Kapiton's entrance broke the thread of Gavrila's reflections. The
dissipated shoemaker came in, his hands behind him, and lounging
carelessly against a projecting angle of the wall, near the door,
crossed his right foot in front of his left, and tossed his head, as
much as to say, "What do you want?"

Gavrila looked at Kapiton, and drummed with his fingers on the window-