'What's that? Robert le Diable of Meyer-beer?' bellowed Ivan Demianitch,
coming up to us: 'I don't mind betting it's a first-class article! He's
a Jew, and all Jews, like all Czechs, are born musicians. Especially
Jews. That's right, isn't it, Susanna Ivanovna? Hey? Ha, ha, ha, ha!'

In Mr. Ratsch's last words, and this time even in his guffaw, there
could be heard something more than his usual bantering tone--the desire
to wound was evident. So, at least, I fancied, and so Susanna understood
him. She started instinctively, flushed red, and bit her lower lip. A
spot of light, like the gleam of a tear, flashed on her eyelash, and
rising quickly, she went out of the room.

'Where are you off to, Susanna Ivanovna?' Mr. Ratsch bawled after her.

'Let her be, Ivan Demianitch, 'put in Eleonora Karpovna. 'Wenn sie
einmal so et was im Kopfe hat...'

'A nervous temperament,'Ratsch pronounced, rotating on his heels, and
slapping himself on the haunch, 'suffers with the _plexus solaris._
Oh! you needn't look at me like that, Piotr Gavrilitch! I've had a go
at anatomy too, ha, ha! I'm even a bit of a doctor! You ask Eleonora
Karpovna... I cure all her little ailments! Oh, I'm a famous hand at
that!'

'You must for ever be joking, Ivan Demianitch,' the latter responded
with displeasure, while Fustov, laughing and gracefully swaying to and
fro, looked at the husband and wife.

'And why not be joking, mein Mutterchen?' retorted Ivan Demianitch.
'Life's given us for use, and still more for beauty, as some celebrated