Part 25 (1/2)
”Potatoes?”
”Yes.”
”And fat?”
”You have had enough fat.”
The general smiled craftily, then muttered grumpily:
”That is not eating, that is scientific alimentation.” He cut himself a piece of bacon, ate it with some white bread, and drank more tea with sweet root and candied melon.
Gradually the occupants of the house roused themselves and half- dressed, sleepy--carrying their towels, empty samovars, and tooth brushes--they began to pa.s.s along the corridor in front of the general's open door.
Kirill Lvovich eyed them maliciously as he sat drinking his tea and inwardly cursed them all.
The Cyclop, Leontyevna, Sergius Andreevich's servant, tramped in heavily with her man's boots from the Labour Exchange; her solitary eye peered searchingly into Anna Andreevna's stove.
”I'll see she's not deceiving us over the firewood,” she shouted aggressively: ”Oh, what a store she's got!”
”But you have used the birch-wood,” the general hit back from his room.
The Cyclop flew into a rage and slapped her thighs. One of the periodic scenes ensued.
”What?” Leontyevna cried, ”I am not trusted, I am being spied on!
Lina Fedorovna, I am going to complain to the Exchange.”
Lina Fedorovna joined in from behind her door.
”She isn't trusted, she is being spied on,” she echoed, ”there must be spies in this house! And they call themselves intellectual people!”
”But you took the birch-wood!” protested Lvovich.
”And they call themselves intellectual!” screamed Lina.
The general came out into the pa.s.sage and said severely:
”It is not for _us_ to judge, Lina Fedorovna. We are not the heirs here. But it seems strange to me that Sergius should occupy three rooms, and Anna only one--yes, very strange indeed.”
The quarrel became more violent. Satisfied, the general put on his overcoat and went out to take his place in the ration queue. Lina ran to her husband; he went to get an explanation of the scene, but Lvovich was not to be found, however; he remonstrated with his sister, Anna Andreevna.
”This spying is impossible, it must stop,” he insisted.
”But, can't you understand, it all began with searching for the b.u.t.t- end of a cigarette?” Anna pleaded in deep distress.
Lina had gone upstairs and was telling the whole story to Ekaterina.
Anna appealed to her younger brother, Constantine, a Lyceum student, but he told her he was busy, immediately sitting down at his desk to write. Soon after, however, he rose and went to Sergius.
”Busy?” he asked.
”What? Yes, I am busy.”