"I have a very important piece of news." "What sort of news can you have?" said Vershina. "Share it with us." And Marta immediately envied Vershina because she had such a vast number of words to express the simple question: "What is it?" "Guess!" said Peredonov in a morose, solemn voice. "How can I guess what sort of news you have?" replied Vershina. "You tell us, and then we shall know what your news is." Peredonov felt unhappy because they did not want to try and guess his news. He sat there silently, hunched up awkwardly, dull and heavy, and looked motionlessly before him. Vershina smoked and smiled wryly, showing her dark yellow teeth. "Why should I guess your news this way?" she said after a short silence. "Let me find it out in the cards. Marta, bring the cards here." Marta rose but Peredonov gruffly stopped her: "Sit still, I don't want them. Find out without them, but don't bother me with the cards. But now you can't do it at my expense. I'll show you a trick that'll make you open your mouths wide." Peredonov took his wallet quickly from his pocket and showed Vershina a letter in an envelope, without letting it go from his hands. "Do you see?" he said. "Here's the envelope. And here's the letter." He took out the letter and read it slowly with a dull expression of gratified spite in his eyes. Vershina was dumbfounded. To the very last she had not believed in the Princess, but now she understood that the affair with Marta was conclusively off. She smiled wryly and said: "Well, you're in luck." Marta with an astonished and frightened face, smiled in a flustered way. "Well, what do you think now?" said Peredonov maliciously. "You thought I was a fool, but I've come out best. You spoke about the envelope. Well, here's the envelope. No, there's no mistake about it." He hit the table with his fist, neither violently nor loudly--and his movement and the sound of his words remained somehow strangely distant, as if he were foreign and indifferent to his own affairs. Vershina and Marta exchanged glances in a perplexed way. "Why are you looking at each other?" said Peredonov crossly. "There's nothing for you to look at each other about: everything's settled now and I shall marry Varvara. There were a lot of little girls trying to catch me here." Vershina sent Marta for cigarettes and Marta gladly ran from the summer-house. She felt herself free and light-spirited as she went over the little sandy paths strewn with the bright-coloured autumn leaves. Near the house she met Vladya barefoot--and she felt even gayer and more cheerful. "He's going to marry Varvara, that's decided," she said happily in a low voice as she drew her brother into the house. In the meantime Peredonov, without waiting for Marta, abruptly took his leave. "I have no time," he said, "getting married is not making a pair of _lapti."_[5]