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The captain soon appeared with his one-eyed officer
"What's this, my dear," said Basilia; "the table has been served some time, and no one could make you come"
"You see, Basilia, I was busy with the service, instructing ood soldiers"
"Co The service does not suit the about it You should have stayed at houests, to table"
We took our places for dinner Basilia was not silent a moment; she overwhel? Where did they reside? What was their fortune? When she learned that my father owned three hundred serfs, she exclaimed: "You see there are some rich people in the world--and we, my dear sir, in point of souls, we possess only the maid Polacca Yet, thank God, we live, soirl that must be married off And what fortune has she? The price of two baths per annum If only she could find a worthy husband If not, there she is, eternally ainto her soup I pitied her, and hastened to change the conversation "I have heard that the Bashkirs intend to attack your fortress?"
"Who said so," replied Ivan Mironoff
"I heard it at Orenbourg"
"All nonsense," said Ivan, "we have not heard the least word about it; the Bashkirs are an intiood lessons They dare not attack us, and if they should even dreaht that they would not ain for ten years"
"Do you not fear," I continued, addressing Basilia, "to stay in a fortress exposed to these dangers?"
"A o, ere transferred here froans If I chanced to see their fur caps, if I heard their shouts, believe me, my heart was ready to faint; but now I aands were prowling around us, I would not stir from the fortress"
"Basilia is a very brave lady," observed Alexis, gravely "Ivan Mironoff knows so about it"
"Oh, you see," said Ivan, "she does not belong to the regiment of poltroons"
"And Marie," I asked of her mother "is she as bold as you?"
"Marie?" said the lady "No! Marie is a coward Up to the present she has not heard the report of a gun without treo Ivan had a pleasant fancy to fire off his cannon on htened that she almost went into the next world Since that day the miserable cannon has not spoken"