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pockets] Will you have a smoke? [He offers his cigarette case] These are very good.

. [Comes toward stifled with rage] Leave my house this instant, and don’t you ever dare to set foot in it again! Go this instant!

gets up and drops his cigarette.

. Go at once!

. Nicholas, what do you mean? Why are you so angry?

. Why! Where did you get those cigarettes? Where? You think perhaps that I don’t know where you take the old man every day, and for what purpose?

. [Shrugs his shoulders] What business is it of yours?

. You blackguard, you! The disgraceful rumours that you have been spreading about me have made me disreputable in the eyes of the whole countryside. You and I have nothing in common, and I ask you to leave my house this instant.

. I know that you are saying all this in a moment of irritation, and so I am not angry with you. Insult me as much as you please. [He picks up his cigarette] It is time, though, to shake off this melancholy of yours; you’re not a schoolboy.

. What did I tell you? [Shuddering] Are you making fun of me?

Enter.

. There now, there comes Anna! I shall go.

stops near the table and stands with his head bowed.

. [After a pause] What did she come here for? What did she come here for, I ask you?

. Don’t ask me, Annie. [A pause] I am terribly