I too turned round, and stood waiting in pseudo-courteous expectation. Yet still I wore on my face an impudent smile as I gazed at him. He seemed to hesitate, and his brows contracted to their utmost limits. Every moment his visage was growing darker. The Baroness also turned in my direction, and gazed at me in wrathful perplexity, while some of the passersby also began to stare at us, and others of them halted outright.
“ Hein! ” the Baron vociferated again, with a redoubled growl and a note of growing wrath in his voice.
“ Ja wohl! ” I replied, still looking him in the eyes.
“ Sind Sie rasend? ” he exclaimed, brandishing his stick, and, apparently, beginning to feel nervous. Perhaps it was my costume which intimidated him, for I was well and fashionably dressed, after the manner of a man who belongs to indisputably good society.
“ Ja wo-o-ohl! ” cried I again with all my might with a longdrawn rolling of the ohl sound after the fashion of the Berliners (who constantly use the phrase “ Ja wohl! ” in conversation, and more or less prolong the syllable ohl according as they desire to express different shades of meaning or of mood).
At this the Baron and the Baroness faced sharply about, and almost fled in their alarm. Some of the bystanders gave vent to excited exclamations, and others remained staring at me in astonishment. But I do not remember the details very well.
Wheeling quietly about, I returned in the direction of Polina Alexandrovna. But, when I had got within a hundred paces of her seat, I saw her rise and set out with the children towards the hotel.
At the portico I caught up to her.
“I have perpetrated the—the piece of idiocy,” I said as I came level with her.