or drinking, it was impossible to distinguish what was
said, and only from time to time when the band subsided some peasant
woman could be heard shouting:

"They have sucked the blood out of us, the Herods; a pest on them!"

In the evening they danced to the band. The Hrymin Juniors came,
bringing their wine, and one of them, when dancing a quadrille, held a
bottle in each hand and a wineglass in his mouth, and that made everyone
laugh. In the middle of the quadrille they suddenly crooked their knees
and danced in a squatting position; Aksinya in green flew by like a
flash, stirring up a wind with her train. Someone trod on her flounce
and Crutch shouted:

"Aie, they have torn off the panel! Children!"

Aksinya had naive grey eyes which rarely blinked, and a naive smile
played continually on her face. And in those unblinking eyes, and in
that little head on the long neck, and in her slenderness there was
something snake-like; all in green but for the yellow on her bosom, she
looked with a smile on her face as a viper looks out of the young rye
in the spring at the passers-by, stretching itself and lifting its
head. The Hrymins were free in their behaviour to her, and it was very
noticeable that she was on intimate terms with the elder of them. But
her deaf husband saw nothing, he did not look at her; he sat with his
legs crossed and ate nuts, cracking them so loudly that it sounded like
pistol shots.

But, behold, old Tsybukin himself walked into the middle of the room
and waved his handkerchief as a sign that he, too, wanted to dance the
Russian dance, and all over the house and from the crowd in the yard
rose a roar of approbation:

"_He's_ going to dance! _He_ himself!"

Varvara danced, but the old man only waved his handkerchief and kicked
up his heels, but the people in the yard, propped against one another,
peeping in at the windows, were in raptures, and for the moment forgave
him everything--his wealth and the wrongs he had done them.

"Well done, Grigory Petrovitch!" was heard in the crowd. "That's right,
do your best! You can still play your part! Ha-ha!"

It was kept up till late, till two o'clock in the morning. Anisim,
staggering, went to take leave of the singers and bandsmen, and gave
each of them a new half-rouble. His father, who was not staggering but
still seemed to be standing on one leg, saw his guests off, and said to
each of them:

"The wedding has cost two thousand."

As the party w