His cloudy blue eyes expressed utter remorse.
Nikolka, with his mouth open and a look of intense curiosity, stood facing Lariosik and listening to him.
'There is no leather in Zhitomir', Lariosik was saying perplexedly. 'Simply none to be had at all, you see.
At least of the kind of leather I'm used to wearing.
I sent round to all the shoemakers, offering them as much money as they liked, but it was no good.
So I had to . . .'
As he caught sight of Elena Lariosik turned pale, shifted from foot to foot and for some reason staring down at the emerald-green fringe of her dressing-gown, he said:
'Elena Vasilievna, I'm going straight out to the shops to hunt around, and you shall have a new dinner service today.
I don't know what to say.
How can I apologise to you?
I should be shot for ruining your china.
I'm so terribly clumsy', he added to Nikolka. 'I shall go out to the shops at once', he went on, turning back to Elena.
'Please don't try and go to any shops. You couldn't anyway, because they're all shut.
Don't you know what's happening here in the City?'
'Of course I know!' exclaimed Lariosik. 'After all, I came here on a hospital train, as you know from the telegram.'
'What telegram?' asked Elena. 'We've had no telegram.'
'What?' Lariosik opened his wide mouth. 'You never got it?
Aha!
Now I realise', he turned to Nikolka, 'why you were so amazed to see me . . .
But how . . .
Mama sent a telegram of sixty -three words.'
'Phew, sixty-three words!' Nikolka said in astonishment. 'What a pity.
Telegrams are very slow in getting through these days.
Or to be more accurate, they're not getting through at all.'
'What's to happen then?' Lariosik said in a pained voice. 'Will you let me stay with you?' He looked around helplessly, and it was at once obvious from his expression that he liked it very much at the Turbins' and did not want to go away.
'It's all arranged', replied Elena and nodded graciously. 'We have agreed.
Stay here and make yourself as comfortable as you can.
But you can see what a misfortune . . .'
Lariosik looked more upset than ever.
His eyes became clouded with tears.
'Elena Vasilievna!' he said with emotion, 'I'll do everything I can to help.
I can go without sleep for three or four days on end if necessary.'
'Thank you.'
'And now,' Lariosik said to Nikolka, 'could you please lend me a pair of scissors?'
Nikolka, so amazed and fascinated that he was still as dishevelled as when he had woken up, ran out and came back with the scissors.
Lariosik started to unbutton his tunic, then blinked and said to Nikolka:
'Excuse me, I think I'd better go into your room for a minute, if you don't mind . . .'
In Nikolka's room Lariosik took off his tunic, revealing an extremely dirty shirt. Then armed with the scissors he ripped open the glossy black lining of the tunic and pulled out of it a thick greenish-yellow wad of money.
This he bore solemnly into the dining-room and laid on the table in front of Elena, saying:
'There, Elena Vasilievna, allow me to present you with the money for my keep.'
'But why are you in such a hurry?' Elena asked, blushing. 'You could have paid later . . .'
Lariosik protested hotly:
'No, no, Elena Vasilievna, please take it now.
At difficult times like this money is always extremely necessary, I understand that very well!' He unwrapped the package, from which a woman's picture fell out as he did so.
Lariosik swiftly picked it up and with a sigh thrust it into his pocket. 'In any case it will be safer with you.
What do I want it for?
I shall only need to buy a few cigarettes and some canary seed for the bird . . .'
For a moment Elena forgot about Alexei's wound and she was so favourably impressed by Lariosik's sensible and timely action that a gleam of cheerfulness came into her eyes.
'Maybe he's not such a booby as I thought he was at first', she thought. 'He's polite and conscientious, even if he is a bit eccentric.
It's an awful shame about the dinner service, though.'