Page 195 (1/1)

Meanwhile, the steward's anticipations were not fulfilled The old lady was so , that even in the night she talked of nothing else to one of her companions, as kept in her house solely to entertain her in case of sleeplessness, and, like a night cab tea with his report, her first question was: 'And how about our wedding--is it getting on all right?' He replied, of course, that it was getting on first rate, and that Kapiton would appear before her to pay his reverence to her that day The old lady was not quite well; she did not give much time to business The steent back to his own room, and called a council The matter certainly called for serious consideration Tatiana would make no difficulty, of course; but Kapiton had declared in the hearing of all that he had but one head to lose, not two or three Gerasie frouess that soether A them was an old sideboard waiter, nicknamed Uncle Tail, to whoot out of him was, 'Here's a pretty pass! to be sure, to be sure, to be sure!' As a preliencies, they locked Kapiton up in the lumber-room where the filter was kept; then considered the question with the gravest deliberation, It would, to be sure, be easy to have recourse to force But Heaven save us! there would be an uproar, the mistress would be put out--it would be awful! What should they do? They thought and thought, and at last thought out a solution It had many a time been observed that Gerasiates, he would always turn aith disgust when some one passed by intoxicated, with unsteady steps and his cap on one side of his ear They resolved that Tatiana should be instructed to pretend to be tipsy, and should pass by Gerasiirl refused for a long while to agree to this, but they persuaded her at last; she saw, too, that it was the only possible way of getting rid of her adorer She went out Kapiton was released from the lumber-room; for, after all, he had an interest in the affair Gerasiround with a spade From behind every corner, fro hi Tatiana, at first, he nodded as usual, , inarticulate sounds; then he looked carefully at her, dropped his spade, juht his face close to her face In her fright she staggered more than ever, and shut her eyes He took her by the ar into the rooht at Kapiton Tatiana fairly swooned away Gerasihed, and went off, stepping heavily, to his garret For the next twenty-four hours, he did not come out of it The postillion Antipka said afterwards that he saw Gerasi on his bedstead, his face in his hand Fro a dirge, that is, swaying backwards and forwards with his eyes shut, and shaking his head as drivers or barges Antipka could not bear it, and he caarret next day, no particular change could be observed in him He only seehtest notice of Tatiana or Kapiton The sa, they both had to appear before their eese under their arms, and in a week's ti Gerasie of any sort in his behaviour Only, he came back from the river without water, he had soht, in the stable, he washed and rubbed down his horse so vigorously, that it swayed like a blade of grass in the wind, and staggered fro to the other under his fists of iron