poet has observed. Kolka, wipe your nose, little savage!'


IX


'I was put in a very awkward position this evening through your doing,'
I said the same evening to Fustov, on the way home with him. 'You told
me that that girl--what's her name?--Susanna, was the daughter of Mr.
Ratsch, but she's his stepdaughter.'

'Really! Did I tell you she was his daughter? But... isn't it all the
same?'

'That Ratsch,' I went on.... 'O Alexander, how I detest him! Did you
notice the peculiar sneer with which he spoke of Jews before her? Is
she... a Jewess?'

Fustov walked ahead, swinging his arms; it was cold, the snow was crisp,
like salt, under our feet.

'Yes, I recollect, I did hear something of the sort,' he observed at
last.... 'Her mother, I fancy, was of Jewish extraction.'

'Then Mr. Ratsch must have married a widow the first time?'

'Probably.'

'H'm!... And that Viktor, who didn't come in this evening, is his
stepson too?'