The peasants merely looked at each other in a significant way and kept silence.

Thinking that my question had not been understood, I asked it a second time, repeating a part of what had been related.

To my astonishment and utter discomfiture they all declared that they had never related anything of the sort! In despair I appealed to my friend, and asked him whether my ears had deceived me--whether I was labouring under some strange hallucination.
Without giving me any reply he simply smiled and turned away.
When we had left the village and were driving along in our tarantass the mystery was satisfactorily cleared up.

My friend explained to me that I had not at all misunderstood what had been related, but that my abrupt question and the sight of my note-book had suddenly aroused the peasants' suspicions.

"They evidently suspected," he continued, "that you were a tchinovnik, and that you wished to use to their detriment the knowledge you had acquired.