Page:Korolenko - Makar's Dream and Other Stories.djvu/32

8 "Ah, good evening, good evening, Makar. Good. Will you have tea with us?"

"Tea?" Makar repeated after him. "That's good. That's good, brother; that's fine."

He began quickly to take off his things. Once free of his fur coat and cap he felt more at his ease, and, seeing the red coals already glowing in the samovar, he turned to the young man with exaggerated enthusiasm.

"I like you, that is the truth. I like you so, so very much; at night I don't sleep—"

The stranger turned, and a bitter smile crept over his face.

"You like me, do you?" he asked. "What do you want?"

"Business," Makar answered. "But how did you know?"

"All right. When I've had tea I'll tell you."

As his hosts themselves had offered him tea, Makar thought the moment opportune to press the point farther.

"Have you any roast meat?" he asked. "I like it."

"No, we haven't."

"Well, never mind," replied Makar soothingly. "We'll have that some other time, won't we?" And he repeated his question: "We'll have that some other time?"

"Very well."

Makar now considered that the strangers owed