“ Mesdames et messieurs , let us drive on and see Kasátsky! We can stop at Tambóv and have something to eat.”
“But we shouldn’t get home tonight!”
“Never mind, we will stay at Kasátsky’s.”
“Well, there is a very good hostelry at the Monastery. I stayed there when I was defending Mákhin.”
“No, I shall spend the night at Kasátsky’s!”
“Impossible! Even your omnipotence could not accomplish that!”
“Impossible? Will you bet?”
“All right! If you spend the night with him, the stake shall be whatever you like.”
“A discrétion !”
“But on your side too!”
“Yes, of course. Let us drive on.”
Vodka was handed to the drivers, and the party got out a box of pies, wine, and sweets for themselves. The ladies wrapped up in their white dogskins. The drivers disputed as to whose troika should go ahead, and the youngest, seating himself sideways with a dashing air, swung his long knout and shouted to the horses. The troika-bells tinkled and the sledge-runners squeaked over the snow.
The sledge swayed hardly at all. The shaft-horse, with his tightly bound tail under his decorated breechband, galloped smoothly and briskly; the smooth road seemed to run rapidly backwards, while the driver dashingly shook the reins. One of the lawyers and the officer sitting opposite talked