“You mustn’t imagine they are just anybody,” he said. “It is true they are French. They shout at the top of their voices, and drink⁠ ⁠… but we all know! The French are brought up to be like that! It can’t be helped.⁠ ⁠… The prince,” Ivan Petrovitch added, “let me have them almost for nothing.⁠ ⁠… He said: ‘take them, take them.⁠ ⁠…’ I must introduce you to the prince sometime. A man of culture! He’s forever writing, writing.⁠ ⁠… And do you know what their names are? One is Fanny, the other Isabella.⁠ ⁠… There’s Europe, ha-ha-ha!⁠ ⁠… The west! Goodbye!”

Ivan Petrovitch left Liza and Groholsky in peace, and devoted himself to his ladies. All day long sound of talk, laughter, and the clatter of crockery came from his villa.⁠ ⁠… The lights were not put out till far into the night.⁠ ⁠… Groholsky was in bliss.⁠ ⁠… At last, after a prolonged interval of agony, he felt happy and at peace again. Ivan Petrovitch with his two ladies had no such happiness as he had with one. But alas, destiny has no heart. She plays with the Groholskys, the Lizas, the Ivans, and the Mishutkas as with pawns.⁠ ⁠… Groholsky lost his peace again.⁠ ⁠…

One morning, about ten days afterwards, on waking up late, he went out on to the verandah and saw a spectacle which shocked him, revolted him, and moved him to intense indignation. Under the verandah of the villa opposite stood the French women, and between them Liza. She was talking and looking askance at her own villa as though to see whether that tyrant, that despot were awake (so Groholsky interpreted those looks). Ivan Petrovitch standing on the verandah with his sleeves tucked up, lifted Isabella into the air, then Fanny, and then Liza. When he was lifting Liza it seemed to Groholsky that he pressed her to himself.⁠ ⁠… Liza too flung one leg over the parapet.⁠ ⁠… Oh these women! All sphinxes, every one of them!

When Liza returned home from her husband’s villa and went into the bedroom on tiptoe, as though nothing had happened, Groholsky, pale, with hectic flushes on his cheeks, was lying in the attitude of a man at his last gasp and moaning.

On seeing Liza, he sprang out of bed, and began pacing about the bedroom.