Akulina knocked it from the counter into the farthest corner of the shop." "Tell us all about it," said Schmidt, more interested than ever.
"Ah, that--that is quite another matter," answered the Count, reddening perceptibly as he remembered Akulina's furious abuse.
"If you do not, I have no doubt that she will," said Dumnoff, taking another sip.

"She always gives the news of you, before you come in the morning, before we have made our first hundred." The Count grew redder still, the angry colour mantling in his lean cheeks.
He hesitated a moment, and then made up his mind.
"If that is likely to happen," he cried, "I had better tell you the truth myself, instead of giving her an opportunity of distorting it." "Much better," said the Cossack, eagerly.

"One can believe you better than her." "That is true, at all events," chimed in Dumnoff, who was only brutal and never malicious.
"Well, it happened in this way.

Fischelowitz and I were talking of to-morrow, I think, when she came in from the back shop, having overheard something we had been saying.

Of course she immediately took advantage of my presence to exercise her wit upon me, a proceeding to which I have grown accustomed, seeing that she is only a woman.