"I've been a Mam'zell until now, but now I've become a Madam. We're namesakes--I'm Varvara and you're Varvara--and we've not been to each other's houses. While I was a Mam'zell, I sat at home most of the time. What's the good of sitting by one's stove all the time! Now Ardalyon Borisitch and I will live more socially. Grant me a favour--we will come to you and you will come to us, Mossure to Mossure and Madame to Madame." "But I hear that you're not going to stay here long," said the Head-Master's wife. "I'm told that you and your husband are going to be transferred." "Yes, the paper will come soon and then we shall leave here," replied Varvara. "But as the paper has not yet come, we must stay here a little longer and show ourselves." Varvara had hopes of the inspector's position. After the wedding she wrote a letter to the Princess. She had not yet received an answer. She decided to write again at the New Year. Liudmilla said: "But we thought, Ardalyon Borisitch, that you were going to marry the young lady, Pilnikov?" "What's the good of me marrying anyone else?" said Peredonov. "I need patronage." "But how did your affair with Mademoiselle Pilnikov get broken off," Liudmilla teased him. "Didn't you pay her attentions? Did she refuse you?" "I'll show her up yet," growled Peredonov morosely. "That's an _idée fixe_ of Ardalyon Borisitch," said the Head-Master's wife with a dry laugh. [1] Crowns are held over the bride and bridegroom at Russian weddings in church. CHAPTER XXIV The Peredonov's cat acted wildly, snarled and refused to come when called--it had become quite incorrigible. The animal alarmed Peredonov. He sometimes pronounced exorcisms over it. "I wonder whether it will help," he thought. "There's strong electricity in a cat's fur. That's where the trouble is." Once the idea came into his mind to have the cat shorn. No sooner thought of than done. Varvara was not at home. She had gone to Grushina's, after having put a bottle of cherry brandy into her pocket. There was no one to hinder her. Peredonov tied the cat on a cord--he had made a collar out of a pocket handkerchief--and led the animal to the hairdresser. The cat mewed wildly, and struggled. Sometimes it threw itself in desperation at Peredonov--but Peredonov kept it at a distance with his stick. A crowd of small boys ran behind him, hooting and laughing. Passers-by paused to look. People looked out of their windows to see what the noise was about. Peredonov morosely dragged the cat along on the cord without the least embarrassment. He succeeded in getting the cat to the hairdresser and said: "Shave the cat, barber, the closer the better." The small boys crowded at the shop door, roaring with laughter and making faces. The hairdresser felt offended and grew red. He said in a slightly trembling voice: "I beg your pardon, sir, we don't undertake such jobs. And who ever heard of a shaved cat? It must be the very latest fashion which hasn't reached us yet."