"You are a fool, Kokoshko! But as to Olenka you will stand on one foot and then on the other when you put eyes on her, for another woman with such proper intent is not to be found. What is good she will praise in a moment, but the bad she will blame without waiting; for she judges according to virtue, and has in herself a ready measure. The late under-chamberlain reared her in that way. Should you wish to boast of warlike daring before her, and say that you trampled on justice, you will soon be ashamed; for at once she will say, 'An honorable citizen should not do that; it is against the country.' She will speak so to you that it will be as if some one had slapped you on the face, and you'll wonder that you did not know these things yourself. Tfu! shame! We have raised fearful disorder, and now must stand open-eyed before virtue and innocence. The worst was those girls--" "By no means the worst. I have heard that in the villages there are girls of the petty nobility like blood and milk, and probably not stubborn at all." "Who told you?" asked Kmita, quickly. "Who told me? Who, if not Zend? Yesterday while trying the roan steed he rode to Volmontovichi; he merely rode along the highway, but he saw many titmice, for they were coming from vespers. 'I thought,' said he, 'that I should fly off the horse, they were so handsome and pretty.' And whenever he looked at any one of them she showed her teeth directly. And no wonder! for all the grown men of the nobles have gone to Rossyeni, and it is dreary for the titmice alone." Kmita punched his companion in the side with his fist. "Let us go, Kokoshko, some time in the evening,--pretend we are astray,--shall we?" "But your reputation?" "Oh, to the Devil! Shut your mouth! Go alone, if that is the way; but better drop the matter. It would not pass without talk, and I want to live in peace with the nobles here, for the late under-chamberlain made them Olenka's guardians." "You have spoken of that, but I would not believe it. How did he have such intimacy with homespuns?" "Because he went with them to war, and I heard of this in Orsha, when he said that there was honorable blood in those Lauda men. But to tell the truth, Kokoshko, it was an immediate wonder to me, for it is as if he had made them guards over me." "You will yield to them and bow to your boots before dish-cloths." "First may the pestilence choke them! Be quiet, for I am angry! They will bow to me and serve me. Their quota is ready at every call." "Some one else will command this quota. Zend says that there is a colonel here among them--I forget his name--Volodyovski or something? He led them at Shklov. They fought well, it appears, but were combed out there." "I have heard of a Volodyovski, a famous warrior--But here is Vodokty in sight."