'Ah!' observed Anna Vassilyevna.

'Ah! why ah?' interposed Nikolai Artemyevitch. 'Can you be infected
with prejudice?'

'Why, I said nothing----' Anna Vassilyevna was beginning.

'No, you said, ah!--However that may be, I have thought it well to
acquaint you with my way of thinking; and I venture to think--I
venture to hope Mr. Kurnatovsky will be received _a bras ouverts_. He
is no Montenegrin vagrant.'

'Of course; I need only call Vanka the cook and order a few extra
dishes.'

'You are aware that I will not enter into that,' said Nikolai
Artemyevitch; and he got up, put on his hat, and whistling (he had
heard some one say that whistling was only permissible in a country
villa and a riding court) went out for a stroll in the garden. Shubin
watched him out of the little window of his lodge, and in silence put
out his tongue at him.

At ten minutes to four, a hackney-carriage drove up to the steps of
the Stahovs's villa, and a man, still young, of prepossessing
appearance, simply and elegantly dressed, stepped out of it
and sent up his name. This was Yegor Andreyevitch Kurnatovsky.

This was what, among other things, Elena wrote next day to Insarov: