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'Well, what are you in such a taking for? Isn't she to your taste, hey?'

'Not to h, a hard-working steady girl But you know very well yourself, Gavrila Andreitch, why that fellow, that wild man of the woods, that monster of the steppes, he's after her, you know'

'I know, mate, I know all about it,' the butler cut him short in a tone of annoyance: 'but there, you see'

'But upon my soul, Gavrila Andreitch! why, he'll kill ot a fist--why, you kindly look yourself what a fist he's got; why, he's siot a fist like Minin Pozharsky's You see he's deaf, he beats and does not hear how he's beating! He swings his great fists, as if he's asleep And there's no possibility of pacifying him; and for why? Why, because, as you know yourself, Gavrila Andreitch, he's deaf, and what's more, has no more wit than the heel of my foot Why, he's a sort of beast, a heathen idol, Gavrila Andreitch, and worsea block of wood; what have I done that I should have to suffer from him now? Sure it is, it's all over with h to put up with, I've been battered like an earthenware pot, but still I'm a man, after all, and not a worthless pot'

'I know, I know, don't go talking away'

'Lord, my God!' the shoemaker continued warmly, 'when is the end? when, O Lord! A poor wretch I as are endless! What a life, what a lifedays, I was beaten by a German I was 'prentice to; in the prime of life beaten by my own countrymen, and last of all, in ripe years, see what I have been brought to'

'Ugh, you flabby soul!' said Gavrila Andreitch 'Why do you make so many words about it?'

'Why, do you say, Gavrila Andreitch? It's not a beating I'entleive me a civil word before folks, and I'm a et along,' Gavrila interposed iered off

'But, if it were not for him,' the steward shouted after hinify my acquiescence,' retorted Kapiton as he disappeared