was being said in the village—namely, that Kornéy’s wife, Martha, had taken on her former lover as labourer, and was now living with him.
“What’s it to me? … But I’m sorry for you,” said tipsy Kouzmá. “It’s not nice, and people are laughing. One sees she’s not afraid of sinning. ‘But,’ thinks I, ‘just you wait a bit! Presently your man will come back!’ … That’s how it is, brother Kornéy.”
Kornéy listened in silence to Kouzmá’s words, and his thick eyebrows descended lower and lower over his sparkling jet-black eyes.
“Are you going to water your horses?” was all he said, when the bottle was empty. “No? Then let’s get on!”
He paid the landlord, and went out.
It was dusk before he reached home. The first person he met there was this same Justin, about whom he had not been able to help thinking all the way home. Kornéy said, “How do you do?” to this thin, pale-faced, bustling Justin, but then shook his head doubtfully.
“That old hound, Kouzmá, has been lying,” thought he. “But who knows? Anyhow, I’ll find out all about it.”
Kouzmá stood beside the horses, winking towards Justin with his one eye.
“So you are living here?” Kornéy inquired.
“Why not? One must work somewhere,” Justin replied.
“Is our room heated?”
“Why, of course! Martha Matvéyevna is there,” answered Justin.
Kornéy went up the steps of the porch. Hearing his voice, Martha came out into the passage, and, seeing her husband, she flushed, and greeted