"Hush! I say!" "I won't be ill-treated by you any more!" He ground his teeth, and took a step backwards, perhaps with the intention of striking her with greater force.... But at this moment the door opened suddenly, and Doctor Wasschtschenko appeared on the scene. "What's going on here? Do you forget where you are? What sort of business is this?" His face wore a severe and surprised expression. Orloff did not seem in the least taken aback, but, nodding his head at the doctor, he remarked-- "It's nothing! nothing but a little clearing up of the atmosphere between man and wife." And he laughed with a half-nervous, half-sneering smile in the doctor's face. "Why were you absent from duty to-day?" said the doctor angrily, for he was vexed by Orloff's sneering, impertinent manner. Grigori shrugged his shoulders, and replied coolly-- "I was otherwise engaged.... I had business of my own to attend to...." "Oh!... Was that so? And who was making all that row last night?" "We were," Grigori replied. "Oh! it was you ... was it?... Very good, very good!... You make yourselves quite at home here, it seems.... Go out without permission...." "We are not slaves...." "Silence!... You would like to turn this place into a vodka-shop, you scum!... I'll let you know where you are!" A wild rush of defiance, a passionate desire to rush out and get free from all these confused feelings that oppressed him, suddenly took possession of Grischka. It seemed to him all at once, that by doing something out of the common, something extraordinary, he could tear himself free from the bonds that were fettering his soul. He shuddered, as a pleasant cool feeling seemed to creep round his heart, and going up to the doctor with quiet cat-like tread he said-- "Don't strain your throat, shouting like that! I know very well where I am ... a place where you kill people!" "What are you talking about?... What was that you said?" exclaimed the doctor in an astonished voice. Grigori realized that he had made use of a meaningless and insulting expression; but he would not retract it; he grew more excited, and continued-- "Oh! it doesn't matter! You'll soon see what I meant!... Matrona, pack up your traps; we are off!" "Not so fast, my friend! You must repeat first what you have just said," insisted the doctor in a quiet voice that boded no good. "Come now, speak!... You shall catch it for this, you scoundrel!" Grischka stared him full in the face--he had a feeling as if he were being carried away by a puff of wind, and as if each breath that he took made him feel lighter.