ly, just before the whistle, in came two ladies with a little
poodle, and sat down opposite to me; not bad-looking women; one was in
light blue, the other in black silk. The poodle, a beauty with a silver
collar, lay on light blue's knee. They looked haughtily about, and
talked English together. I took no notice, just went on smoking. I
observed that the ladies were getting angry--over my cigar, doubtless.
One looked at me through her tortoise-shell eyeglass.

"I took no notice, because they never said a word. If they didn't like
the cigar, why couldn't they say so? Not a word, not a hint! Suddenly,
and without the very slightest suspicion of warning, 'light blue' seizes
my cigar from between my fingers, and, wheugh! out of the window with
it! Well, on flew the train, and I sat bewildered, and the young woman,
tall and fair, and rather red in the face, too red, glared at me with
flashing eyes.

"I didn't say a word, but with extreme courtesy, I may say with most
refined courtesy, I reached my finger and thumb over towards the poodle,
took it up delicately by the nape of the neck, and chucked it out of
the window, after the cigar. The train went flying on, and the poodle's
yells were lost in the distance."

"Oh, you naughty man!" cried Nastasia, laughing and clapping her hands
like a child.

"Bravo!" said Ferdishenko. Ptitsin laughed too, though he had been very
sorry to see the general appear. Even Colia laughed and said, "Bravo!"

"And I was right, truly right," cried the general, with warmth and
solemnity, "for if cigars are forbidden in railway carriages, poodles
are much more so."

"Well, and what did the lady do?" asked Nastasia, impatiently.

"She--ah, that's where all the mischief of it lies!" replied Ivolgin,
frowning. "Without a word, as it were, of warning, she slapped me on the
cheek! An extraordinary woman!"

"And you?"

The general dropped his eyes, and elevated his brows; shrugged his
shoulders, tightened his lips, spread his hands, and remained silent. At
last he blurted out:

"I lost my head!"

"Did you hit her?"

"No, oh no!--there was a great flare-up, but I didn't hit her! I had to
struggle a little, purely to defend myself; but the very devil was
in the business. It turned out that 'light blue' was an Englishwoman,
governess or something, at Princess Bielokonski's, and the other woman
was one of the old-maid princesses Bielokonski. Well, everybody knows
what great friends the princess