Though I've nothing against you, I don't bear a grudge. You ask how I could come? What is there surprising about it? It was the simplest thing. And why are you so surprised? How are you, Praskovya? What do you do here?"
"How do you do, Granny?" said Polina, going up to her. "Have you been long on the journey?"
"Well, she's asked a sensible question—the others could say nothing but oh and ah! Why, you see, I lay in bed and lay in bed and was doctored and doctored, so I sent the doctors away and called in the sexton from St. Nicolas. He had cured a peasant woman of the same disease by means of hayseed. And he did me good, too. On the third day I was in a perspiration all day and I got up. Then my Germans gathered round again, put on their spectacles and began to argue. 'If you were to go abroad now,' said they, 'and take a course of the waters, all your symptoms would disappear.' And why shouldn't I? I thought. The fools of Zazhigins began sighing and moaning: 'Where are you off to?' they said. Well, so here I am! It took me a day to get ready, and the following week, on a Friday, I took a maid, and Potapitch, and the footman, Fyodor, but I sent Fyodor back from Berlin, because I saw he was not wanted, and I could have come quite alone. I took a special compartment and there are porters at all the stations, and for twenty kopecks they will carry you wherever you like. I say, what rooms he has taken!" she said in conclusion, looking about her. "How do you get the money, my good man? Why, everything you've got is mortgaged. What a lot of money you must owe to this Frenchman alone! I know all about it; you see, I know all about it!"
"Oh, Auntie…" said the General, all confusion. "I am surprised, Auntie… I imagine that I am free to act… Besides, my expenses are not beyond my means, and we are here…"
"They are not? You say so! Then you must have robbed your children of their last farthing—you, their trustee!"
"After that, after such words," began the General, indignant, "I really don't know…"
"To be sure, you don't! I'll be bound you are always at roulette here? Have you whistled it all away?"
The General was so overwhelmed that he almost spluttered in the rush of his feelings.
"Roulette! I? In my position…I? Think what you are saying, Auntie; you must still be unwell…"
