bring babies from somewhere, but only to those who are married.”
Kostya stared at Nastya and listened, pondering profoundly.
“Nastya, how silly you are!” he said at last, firmly and calmly. “How can Katerina have a baby when she isn’t married?”
Nastya was exasperated.
“You know nothing about it,” she snapped irritably. “Perhaps she has a husband, only he is in prison, so now she’s got a baby.”
“But is her husband in prison?” the matter-of-fact Kostya inquired gravely.
“Or, I tell you what,” Nastya interrupted impulsively, completely rejecting and forgetting her first hypothesis. “She hasn’t a husband, you are right there, but she wants to be married, and so she’s been thinking of getting married, and thinking and thinking of it till now she’s got it, that is, not a husband but a baby.”
“Well, perhaps so,” Kostya agreed, entirely vanquished. “But you