"Yes, I've told you already that I'm not coming, you queer fellow."
"If that's so, what am I to say to Olimpiada Semyonovna a week hence, when she will be expecting you and you don't come?"
"What a difficulty! Tell her I've broken my leg or something of that sort."
"She won't believe it," Pavel Pavlovitch drawled plaintively.
"And you'll catch it?" Velchaninov went on laughing. "But I observe, my poor friend, that you tremble before your delightful wife—don't you?"
Pavel Pavlovitch tried to smile, but it did not come off. That Velchaninov had refused to visit them was a good thing, of course, but that he should be over-familiar to him about his wife was disagreeable. Pavel Pavlovitch winced; Velchaninov noticed it. Meanwhile the second bell rang; they heard a shrill voice from the train anxiously calling Pavel Pavlovitch. The latter moved, fidgeted in his chair, but did not rise at the first summons, evidently expecting something more from Velchaninov, no doubt another assurance that he would not come and stay with them.
"What was your wife's maiden name?" Velchaninov inquired, as though unaware of Pavel Pavlovitch's anxiety.
"She is our priest's daughter," replied the latter in uneasy trepidation, listening and looking towards the train.
"Ah, I understand, you married her for her beauty."
Pavel Pavlovitch winced again.
"And who's this Mitenka with you?"
"Oh, he's a distant relation of ours—that is, of mine; the son of my deceased cousin. His name's Golubtchikov, he was degraded for disorderly behaviour in the army, but now he has been promoted again and we have been getting his equipment. . . . He's an unfortunate young man . . ."
"To be sure, the regular thing; the party's complete," thought Velchaninov.
"Pavel Pavlovitch!" the call came again from the train, and by now with a marked tone of irritation in the voice.
"Pal Palitch!" they heard in another thick voice.
Pavel Pavlovitch fidgeted and moved restlessly again, but Velchaninov took him by the elbow and detained him.
"How would you like me to go this minute and tell your wife how you tried to cut my throat?"
