Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/286

. Isn't there going to be a séance here at once? (Noticing that Tánya is gathering up the twine, looks fixedly at her, and bursts out laughing.) Tánya! You have been doing it all! Don't deny it! And you did it last time! Yes, you did, you did!

. Dear Lizavéta Leonídovna!

(in ecstasy). Ah, how good that is! I did not expect that! Why did you do it all?

. My dear Lizavéta Leonídovna, don't give me away!

. No, not for anything in the world. I am so glad! How do you do it?

. Like this: I will hide myself, and then, when they put out the lights, I will crawl out and do it.

(pointing to the twine). What is this for? Yes, I understand, you don't have to tell me you catch them—

. Dear Lizavéta Leonídovna, I will tell you everything. Before this I only joked, but now I want to get something done.

. How? What? Something done?

. You have seen the peasants that have come to buy some land. Now, your papa will not sell it to them, and he has returned the document to them without signing it. Fédor Iványch says he did so because the spirits have told him to. So I am trying it this way.

. Ah, what a clever girl you are! Do it, do it! How are you going to do it?

. Like this: the moment they put out the lights, I will begin to rap, to throw the twine on their heads, and finally to hurl the paper on the floor, and on the table,—I have it with me.

. Well, and—?

. Well, they will be astonished. The paper was in the hands of the peasants, and suddenly it is here. I will order—