The quarrel became more violent. Satisfied, the general put on his overcoat and went out to take his place in the ration queue. Lina ran to her husband; he went to get an explanation of the scene, but Lvovich was not to be found, however; he remonstrated with his sister, Anna Andreevna. "This spying is impossible, it must stop," he insisted. "But, can't you understand, it all began with searching for the butt- end of a cigarette?" Anna pleaded in deep distress. Lina had gone upstairs and was telling the whole story to Ekaterina. Anna appealed to her younger brother, Constantine, a Lyceum student, but he told her he was busy, immediately sitting down at his desk to write. Soon after, however, he rose and went to Sergius. "Busy?" he asked. "What? Yes, I am busy." "Have a smoke." They began to smoke an inferior brand of tobacco known as "Kepsten." They were silent. "Will you have a game of chess?" Constantine asked after a while. "Yes...But no, I think not," Sergius replied. "Just one game?" "Just one? Well, only one!" They sat down and played chess. Constantine was dressed in a rumpled Lyceum uniform; he wore rings on his fingers, like the general and Sergius, and an antique gold chain hung round his neck. Being in constant dread of requisitioners and robbers they had divided all the jewellery between them, and wore it for safety. The brothers played one game, then a second, a fourth, a sixth-- smoking and quarrelling, disagreeing over the moves and trying to re- arrange them. The general returned from the ration queue in the market and came along the passage. He peeped in at the two players through the open door, and after some hesitation decided to enter. "Greenhorns, you don't know how to play!" he said. "What do you mean? Don't know how to play?" "Now, now, don't fly into a rage. If I am wrong--excuse an old man ... I sent Kirka for the newspaper, I gave him a twenty copeck piece for a tip." "I am not in a rage!" "Very well, then that's all right. But throw over your chess. Let us play a game of chance." They sat down and played it for the entire day, only interrupting the game to go to their rooms for dinner. Whenever Sergius had to pay a fine he would say: "Anyhow, Kirill Lvovich, you have an objectionable manner." "Now, now, greenhorn!" the general would reply. They had not a penny between them. Katerina Andreevna had been appointed guardian of their possessions. The men refused to recognise her authority and called it merely a "femocracy." Only Sergius still had some capital, the proceeds of an estate he had sold before the Revolution. Therefore he could well afford to keep a servant.