Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VI).djvu/108

Rh Every one went back to the drawing-room for tea.

'We have a very bad habit, Alexey Dmitritch,' said Sipyagin to Nezhdanov; we play cards every evening, and what's more, a prohibited game think of that! I won't invite you to join us but Marianna will be so good as to play us something on the piano. You're fond of music, I hope, eh?' And without waiting for an answer, Sipyagin picked up a pack of cards. Marianna sat down to the piano, and played neither well nor ill a few of Mendelssohn's 'Songs without Words.' '''Charmant! charmant! quel toucher!''' Kallomyetsev, from a distance, shrieked as though he had been scalded; but this ejaculation was vociferated rather from politeness; and Nezhdanov too, in spite of the hope expressed by Sipyagin, had no passion for music.

Meanwhile Sipyagin and his wife, Kallomyetsev and Anna Zaharovna, had sat down to cards. Kolya came to say good-night, and after receiving a blessing from his parents and a large glass of milk instead of tea, he went off to bed; his father shouted after him that to-morrow he would begin his lessons with Alexey Dmitritch. Soon afterwards, seeing that Nezhdanov was hanging aimlessly