"Yes, my mater is a cunning blade.
She ought to be a minister of state instead of housekeeper at Golovliovo.
Let me tell you, she has been unjust to me and she has insulted me, but I respect her.
The main thing is, she's clever as the devil.
If not for her, where would we have been now?
We would have had nothing but Golovliovo with its one hundred and one and a half souls.
Just think what an enormous pile she has made."
"Well, your brothers will certainly be rich."
"Yes.
But I'll have nothing, that's just as certain.
Yes, friend, I've gone to rack and ruin.
But my brothers, they'll be rich, especially the Bloodsucker.
He can ensnare a person in no time, and it won't be long before he'll undo her, too. He'll pump the estate and the money out of her. I have an eye for these things.
But Pavel, he's a fine chap. He will send my tobacco on the sly. You'll see if he doesn't.
As soon as I reach Golovliovo, I'll send a note off to him: 'Dear brother, it's so and so with me. Ease my soul.'
Ah, if I were rich!"
"What would you do?"
"In the first place, I'd make you roll in wealth."
"Why me?
First think of yourself. I'm contented, living as I do under your mother's rule."
"Oh, no, brother, attendez! I would make you the chief marshal of all my estates.
Yes, my dear friend, you have fed and warmed a soldier, accept my thanks.
If not for your generosity, I should now be footing it all the way to the home of my fathers.
And, of course, I would free you on the spot and open up all my treasury to you—drink, eat and be merry.
What did you think I would do?"
"You'd better stop worrying about me, sir.
What else would you do if you were rich?"
"In the second place, I'd get a mistress at once.
At Kursk I went to mass once and saw one—a queen! She was very fidgety and restless."
"But maybe she would object to becoming your mistress."
"And how about hard cash?
What's the filthy lucre for?
If a hundred thousand is not enough for her, she'll take two hundred thousand.
When I have money, no expense is too great for me, if it is a question of getting a bit of pleasure out of life.
I must confess that at the time I let her know through our corporal that I would give her three rubles. But the wench asked five."
"That was too much for you, of course!"
"Well, I can't tell.
As I said, I was in a dream the whole time.
Maybe she came to me, but I forget.
Those two months of marching have gone completely out of my mind.
No such thing has happened to you, I suppose?"
Ivan Mikhailych was silent.
Stepan Vladimirych looked at him attentively and discovered that his fellow-traveller was sound asleep.
"Umph," he said. "He has nodded off, the sleepy-head.
You have grown fat, brother, on the tea and fare of your eating-house.
I can't sleep, not a wink. A good chance for a lark."
Golovliov looked around and saw that everybody was asleep.
The merchant at his side was constantly striking his head against a cross-beam, but kept on sleeping.
His face shone as if veneered, and flies swarmed about his mouth.
A splendid idea, Stepan thought, to cram all the flies down the merchant's throat. His hand began to move toward the merchant, but halfway he repented and gave up the idea.