'Why, haven't you been plotting with that old hag, the housekeeper, eh? Haven't you been telling tales, eh? Tell me, aren't you bringing all sorts of stories up against the defenceless girl? I suppose it's not your doing that she's been degraded from laundrymaid to washing dishes in the scullery? And it's not your doing that she's beaten and dressed in sackcloth?... You ought to be ashamed, you ought to be ashamed--an old man like you! You know there's a paralytic stroke always hanging over you.... You will have to answer to God.' 'You're abusive, Pavel Andreitch, you're abusive.... You shan't have a chance to be insolent much longer.' Pavel fired up. 'What? You dare to threaten me?' he said passionately. 'You think I'm afraid of you. No, my man, I'm not come to that! What have I to be afraid of?... I can make my bread everywhere. For you, now, it's another thing! It's only here you can live and tell tales, and filch....' 'Fancy the conceit of the fellow!' interrupted the clerk, who was also beginning to lose patience; 'an apothecary's assistant, simply an apothecary's assistant, a wretched leech; and listen to him--fie upon you! you're a high and mighty personage!' 'Yes, an apothecary's assistant, and except for this apothecary's assistant you'd have been rotting in the graveyard by now.... It was some devil drove me to cure him,' he added between his teeth. 'You cured me?... No, you tried to poison me; you dosed me with aloes,' the clerk put in. 'What was I to do if nothing but aloes had any effect on you?' 'The use of aloes is forbidden by the Board of Health,' pursued Nikolai. 'I'll lodge a complaint against you yet.... You tried to compass my death--that was what you did! But the Lord suffered it not.' 'Hush, now, that's enough, gentlemen,' the cashier was beginning.... 'Stand off!' bawled the clerk. 'He tried to poison me! Do you understand that?' 'That's very likely.... Listen, Nikolai Eremyitch,' Pavel began in despairing accents. 'For the last time, I beg you.... You force me to it--can't stand it any longer. Let us alone, do you hear? or else, by God, it'll go ill with one or other of us--I mean with you!' The fat man flew into a rage. 'I'm not afraid of you!' he shouted; 'do you hear, milksop? I got the better of your father; I broke his horns--a warning to you; take care!' 'Don't talk of my father, Nikolai Eremyitch.' 'Get away! who are you to give me orders?' 'I tell you, don't talk of him!' 'And I tell you, don't forget yourself.... However necessary you think yourself, if our lady has a choice between us, it's not you'll be kept, my dear! None's allowed to mutiny, mind!' (Pavel was shaking with fury.) 'As for the wench, Tatyana, she deserves ... wait a bit, she'll get something worse!' Pavel dashed forward with uplifted fists, and the clerk rolled heavily on the floor. 'Handcuff him, handcuff him,' groaned Nikolai Eremyitch....