A giggling girl from the suburbs sat on the chair.
"Ah! Ah!" cried Absalom Vladimirovich, "divine! Ah! Ah!
First rate!
You are Queen Margot."
The queen from the suburbs laughed respectfully, though she understood nothing.
"Have some chocolate, do!
Ah! Ah!
Charming."
He kept kissing her hands, admiring her modest attire, pushing the cat into her lap, and asking, fawningly:
"He's just like a parrot, isn't he?
A lion.
A real lion.
Tell me, isn't he extraordinarily fluffy?
And his tail.
It really is a huge tail, isn't it?"
The cat then went flying into the corner, and, pressing his hands to his milk-white chest, Absalom Vladimirovich began bowing to someone outside the window.
Suddenly a valve popped open in his madcap mind and he began to be witty about his visitor's physical and spiritual attributes.
"Is that brooch really made of glass?
Ah!
Ah!
What brilliance.
Honestly, you dazzle me.
And tell me, is Paris really a big city?
Is there really an Eiffel Tower there?
Ah!
What hands!
What a nose!"
He did not kiss the girl.
It was enough for him to pay her compliments.
And he talked without end.
The flow of compliments was interrupted by the unexpected appearance of Ostap.
The smooth operator fiddled with a piece of paper and asked sternly:
"Does Iznurenkov live here?
Is that you? "
Absalom Vladimirovich peered uneasily into the stranger s stony face.
He tried to read in his eyes exactly what demands were forthcoming; whether it was a fine for breaking a tram window during a conversation, a summons for not paying his rent, or a contribution to a magazine for the blind.
"Come on, Comrade," said Ostap harshly, "that's not the way to do things-kicking out a bailiff."
"What bailiff? " Iznurenkov was horrified.
"You know very well.
I'm now going to remove the furniture.
Kindly remove yourself from that chair, citizeness," said Ostap sternly.
The young citizeness, who only a moment before had been listening to verse by the most lyrical of poets, rose from her seat.
"No, don't move," cried Iznurenkov, sheltering the chair with his body. "They have no right."
"You'd better not talk about rights, citizen.
You should be more conscientious.
Let go of the furniture!
The law must be obeyed."
With these words, Ostap seized the chair and shook it in the air.
"I'm removing the furniture," said Ostap resolutely.
"No, you're not."