"Well, as you will have it, you old deaf-as-a-post," exclaimed the Colonel, interrupting her with good-humoured cynicism." But now, let's sit down; please take a seat, Sub-lieutenant. Lieutenant Federovski," he shrieked towards the door, "stop your work and come and have a schnapps." The Adjutant, who, according to the custom in many regiments, dined every day with his chief, hurriedly entered the dining-room. He clicked his spurs softly and discreetly, walked straight up to the little majolica table with the _sakuska_,[10] calmly helped himself to a schnapps, and ate with extreme calmness and enjoyment. Romashov noticed all that with an absurd, envious feeling of admiration. "You'll take one, won't you?" said Shulgovich to Romashov. "You're no teetotaller, you know." "No, thank you very much," replied Romashov hoarsely; and, with a slight cough, "I do not usually----" "Bravo, my young friend. Stick to that in future." They sat down to table. The dinner was good and abundant. Any one could observe that, in this childless family, both host and hostess had an innocent little weakness for good living. Dinner consisted of chicken soup with vegetables, roast bream with _kascha_,[11] a splendid fat duck and asparagus. On the table stood three remarkable decanters containing red wine, white wine, and madeira, resplendent with embossed silver stoppers bearing elegant foreign marks. The Colonel, whose violent explosion of wrath but a short time previously had evidently given him an excellent appetite, ate with an elegance and taste that struck the spectator with pleasure and surprise. He joked all the time with a certain rough humour. When the asparagus was put on the table, he crammed a corner of his dazzlingly white serviette well down under his chin, and exclaimed in a lively way-- "If I were the Tsar, I would eat asparagus every day of my life." Only once, at the fish course, he fell into his usual domineering tone, and shouted almost harshly to Romashov-- "Sub-lieutenant, be good enough to put your knife down. Fish and cutlets are eaten only with a fork. An officer must know how to eat properly; he may, at any time, you know, be invited to the palace. Don't forget that."