'Warn Anyuta not to talk about me . . .'
'I know, I know . . .
Try not to talk too much, Alyosha.'
'Yes . . .
I'm only whispering . . .
God, if I lose my arm!'
'Now, Alyosha, lie still and be quiet . . .
Shall we keep that woman's overcoat here for a while?'
'Yes, Nikolka mustn't try and take it back to her.
Otherwise something might happen to him ... in the street.
D'you hear?
Whatever happens, for God's sake don't let him go out anywhere.'
'God bless her', Elena said with sincere tenderness. 'And they say there are no more good people in this world . . .'
A faint color rose in the wounded man's cheeks. He stared up at the low white ceiling then turned his gaze on Elena and said with a frown:
'Oh yes - and who, may I ask, is that block-head who has just appeared?'
Elena leaned forwards into the beam of pink light and shrugged.
'Well, this creature appeared at the front door no more than a couple of minutes before you arrived. He's Sergei's nephew from Zhitomir.
You've heard about him - Illarion Surzhansky . . .
Well, this is the famous Lariosik, as he's known in the family.'
'Well?'
'Well, he came to us with a letter.
There's been some drama.
He'd only just started to tell me about it when she brought you here.'
'He seems to have some sort of bird, for God's sake.'
Laughing, but with a look of horror in her eyes, Elena leaned towards the bed:
'The bird's nothing!
He's asking to live here.
I really don't know what to do.'
'Live here?'
'Well, yes . . .
Just be quiet and lie still, please Alyosha.
His mother has written begging us to have him. She simply worships him.
I've never seen such a clumsy idiot as this Lariosik in my life.
The first thing he did when he got here was to smash all our china.
The blue dinner service.
Now there are only two plates of it left.'
'I see.
I don't know what to suggest . . .'
For a long time they whispered in the pink-shadowed room.
The distant voices of Nikolka and the unexpected visitor could be heard through closed doors.
Elena wrung her hands, begging Alexei to talk less.
From the dining-room came a tinkling sound as Anyuta angrily swept up the remains of the blue dinner service.
Finally they came to a whispered decision.
In view of the uncertainty of life in the City from now on and the likelihood of rooms being requisitioned, and because they had no money and Lariosik's mother would be paying for him, they would let him stay, but on condition that he observed the rules of behaviour of the Turbin household.
The bird would be put on probation.
If it proved unbearable having the bird in the house, they would demand its removal and its owner could stay.
As for the smashed dinner service, since Elena could naturally not bring herself to complain about it, and to complain would in any case be insufferably vulgar and rude, they agreed to consign it to tacit oblivion.
Lariosik could sleep in the library, where they would put in a bed with a sprung mattress and a table.
Elena went into the dining-room.
Lariosik was standing in a mournful pose, hanging his head and staring at the place on the sideboard where a pile of twelve plates had once stood.