Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/58

Tales from Tolstoi came out of the vestibule on to the steps, the snow upon which crackled beneath the tread of his felt shoes, and stood still, smoothing away from both sides of his ruddy face — clean shaved, too, with the exception of a moustache — the corners of the collar of his sheep-skin mantle, lined inwardly with fur, lest the fur should be made wet and moist by his breathing.

"So you are perched up there already, you little rascal, eh?" said he, perceiving his little son in the sledge, and he showed his white teeth as he grinned. Vasily Andreich had been stimulated by drinking wine with his guests, and was therefore more than usually satisfied with everything which belonged to him and with everything which he did.

With her head and her shoulders enveloped in woollen wraps, so that only her eyes were visible, the thin and pale-faced wife of Vasily Andreich accompanied him, standing behind him in the vestibule.

"Nay, indeed, you should take Nikita with you," said she, boldly emerging from the door. Vasily Andreich said nothing; he only spat on the ground. "You have got money with you," she continued in a lamentable sort of voice. "Yes, and the weather shows no signs of lifting. You ought indeed, God knows."

"What! do you mean to say that I don't know the way then, that you are always bothering me to take a guide?" replied Vasily Andreich, with that peculiar unnatural stiffening of the lips with which he generally addressed buyers or sellers with whom he was haggling — obviously he loved the sound of his own voice. 8