Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 02.djvu/554

 516 what Ermolóv said? And Abrám Ilích has been only six —"

"Ten years? It is nearly sixteen."

"Bolkhóv, let us have some of your sage. It is damp, brrrr! Hey?" he added, smiling. "Let us have a drink, major!"

But the major was dissatisfied with the first remarks of the old captain, and now was even more mortified, and sought a refuge in his own grandeur. He tuned a song, and again looked at his watch.

"I will never travel to Russia," continued Trosénko, paying no attention to the frowning major. "I have forgotten how to walk and talk like a Russian. They will say, 'What monster is this that has arrived.' I say, this is Asia. Is it not so, Nikoláy Fédorovich? What am I to do in Russia? All the same, I shall be shot some day here. They will ask, 'Where is Trosénko?' Shot. What are you going to do with the eighth company—eh?" he added, addressing the major all the time.

"Send the officer of the day along the battalion!" shouted Kirsánov, without replying to the captain, though I was again convinced that he had no orders to give.

"I suppose you are glad, young man, that you are receiving double pay now?" said the major, after a few minutes' silence, to the adjutant of the battalion.

"Of course, very much so."

"I find that our pay is now very large, Nikoláy Fédorovich," he continued. "A young man can live quite decently, and even allow himself some luxuries."

"No, really, Abrám Ilích," timidly said the adjutant, "though the pay is double, yet—one must keep a horse—"

"Don't tell me that, young man! I have myself been an ensign, and I know. Believe me, one can live, with