Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/212



(to the messenger). Wait!

. That's what I have been doing.

. Pardon me, the lackey has just gone out. But please, let me help you! (Takes off his fur coat.)

(adjusting his clothes). Is Leonid Fédorovich at home? Is he up? (Bell.)

. Certainly. Long ago.

(looking for the lackey. Seeing Sakhátov, with familiarity). Ah, my respects to you!

(looking fixedly at him). I think you are the doctor?

. I thought you were abroad. Coming to see Leoníd Fédorovich?

. Yes. What are you doing here? Anybody ill?

(laughing). Not exactly ill, but, you know— these ladies are in a bad shape. They play cards every day until three o'clock in the morning, and then they take to the wine-glass. The lady is stout and fat, and not so very young, either.

. Do you tell your diagnosis to Anna Pávlovna? I should think she would not like it.

(laughing). But it is the truth. They do all these things, and then there is a disorder of the digestive organs, pressure on the liver, the nerves,—and all that