Pagina 36 di 2288

It was Friday, and in the dining-room the German watchmaker was

winding up the clock. Stepan Arkadyevitch remembered his joke

about this punctual, bald watchmaker, "that the German was wound

up for a whole lifetime himself, to wind up watches," and he

smiled. Stepan Arkadyevitch was fond of a joke: "And maybe she

will come round! That's a good expression, 'come round,'" he

thought. "I must repeat that."

"Matvey!" he shouted. "Arrange everything with Darya in the

sitting room for Anna Arkadyevna," he said to Matvey when he came

in.

"Yes, sir."

Stepan Arkadyevitch put on his fur coat and went out onto the

steps.

"You won't dine at home?" said Matvey, seeing him off.

"That's as it happens. But here's for the housekeeping," he said,

taking ten roubles from his pocketbook. "That'll be enough."

"Enough or not enough, we must make it do," said Matvey, slamming

the carriage door and stepping back onto the steps.