Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/323

 caused a loss of several thousand. He sold the land which ought not to have been sold.

. Let me go, Anna Pávlovna!

. No, you will have to answer. You can't cheat like that. I will take you before a justice of the peace.

(stepping forward). Let her go, mother! If you wish to sue her, you will have to sue me, too: I did it all with her last night.

. Of course, if you had anything to do with it, it could have been nothing but the nastiest thing.

. Good day, Anna Pávlovna! Good day, madam! I am bringing you, Leoníd Fédorovich, the report of the thirteenth meeting of the spiritualists at Chicago. Schmidt delivered a wonderful speech!

. Ah, that will be interesting!

. I will tell you something which is more interesting still. It turns out that this girl has been fooling you and my husband. Betsy takes it upon herself, but that is only to tease me; it was really this illiterate girl who has been fooling you, and you believed it all. There were none of your mediumistic phenomena last night, but this girl here (pointing to TanyaTánya [sic]) has done it all.

(angrily). What do you mean?

. I mean that it was she who played the guitar in the dark, and who struck my husband on the head, and who did all that foolishness. She has just confessed.

(smiling). What does that prove?

. It proves that your mediumism is nonsense, that is what it proves!

. Because this girl wanted to cheat, mediumism is nonsense, as you have deigned to express yourself? (Smiling.) A strange conclusion! It may well