Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VII).djvu/220

Rh him, still with the same courteous firmness, to wait in the drawing-room till he should be sent for. Paklin even here hoped to slink off but, at a hint from Kallomyetsev, a stalwart gendarme showed himself at the door. Paklin remained.

'You guess, no doubt, what has brought me to you, Voldemar?' began Sipyagin.

'No, dear boy, I can't guess,' answered the amiable epicurean, while a smile of welcome curved his rosy cheeks and showed a glimpse of his shining teeth, half hidden by silky moustaches.

'What? Don't you know about Markelov?'

'What do you mean?—Markelov?' the governor repeated with the same expression. He had, to begin with, no clear recollection that the man arrested the day before was called Markelov; and he had besides utterly forgotten that Sipyagin's wife had a brother of that surname. 'But why are you standing, Boris? sit down; won't you have some tea?'

But Sipyagin was in no mood for tea.

When he explained at last what was the matter and for what reason he and Kallomyetsev had made their appearance, the governor uttered a pained exclamation, and slapped himself on the forehead, while his face assumed an expression of grief.