“What an idea! Was willst du mehr? What things the fool invents! Ah, yes!

“In the heat of midday in the vale of Dagestan.

“In the heat of midday in the vale of Dagestan.

“Ah, how I loved it! I loved that song to distraction, Polenka! Your father, you know, used to sing it when we were engaged.⁠ ⁠… Oh, those days! Oh, that’s the thing for us to sing! How does it go? I’ve forgotten. Remind me! How was it?”

She was violently excited and tried to sit up. At last, in a horribly hoarse, broken voice, she began, shrieking and gasping at every word, with a look of growing terror.