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"Vassily, the scoundrel, has betrayed us," he whispered through his teeth. The door was flung wide open, and my father in his dressing gown and without his cravat, my aunt in her dressing jacket, Trankvillitatin, Vassily, Yushka, another boy, and the cook, Agapit all burst into the room. "Scoundrels!" shouted my father, gasping for breath.... "At last we have found you out!"
"And you, you rascal, ought not to have dared to accept such a present," he said, pulling him by the hair: "and you sold it, too, you good-for-nothing boy!" Yushka, as I learned later had, in the simplicity of his heart, taken my watch to a neighbouring watchmaker's.
Yushka, a tall, thin old man of eighty, came in with a glass of vodka on a dark-coloured tray, with a few patches of flesh-colour on it, all that was left of the original enamel. The priest began to decline. 'Come, drink it up, father, no ceremony; it's too bad of you, observed the landowner reproachfully. The poor young man had to obey. 'There, now, father, you may go. The priest took leave.
David certainly despised me. I could not leave it so. "I will show him," I thought, clenching my teeth, and at once with a firm step I went into the passage, found our page-boy, Yushka, and presented him with the watch!
Understanding nothing, I followed my aunt, and, as I crossed the threshold of the drawing-room, I saw my father, striding up and down and ruffling up his hair, Yushka in tears by the door and, sitting on a chair in the corner, my godfather, Nastasey Nastasyeitch, with an expression of peculiar malignancy in his distended nostrils and in his fiery, slanting eyes.
But before the panting Yushka had time to reach the terrified little girl the house-keeper suddenly appeared, snatched her by the arm, and slapped her several times on the back.... 'That's it! that's it! cried the master, 'tut-tut-tut!... And carry off the hens, Avdotya, he added in a loud voice, and he turned with a beaming face to me; 'that was a fine chase, my dear sir, hey?
The priest got up and took his hat. 'Wait a bit, wait a bit, father, said Mardary Apollonitch, not yet leaving go of my hand; 'don't go ... I have sent for some vodka for you. 'I never drink it, sir, the priest muttered in confusion, blushing up to his ears. 'What nonsense! answered Mardary Apollonitch; 'Mishka! Yushka! vodka for the father!
The unlucky hens, two speckled and one white with a topknot, as I still remember, went on stalking tranquilly about under the apple-trees, occasionally giving vent to their feelings in a prolonged clucking, when suddenly Yushka, bareheaded and stick in hand, with three other house-serfs of mature years, flew at them simultaneously. Then the fun began.
My father swooped down upon me as soon as I walked in. "Did you give your watch to Yushka? Tell me!" I glanced at Yushka. "Tell me," repeated my father, stamping. "Yes," I answered, and immediately received a stinging slap in the face, which afforded my aunt great satisfaction. I heard her gulp, as though she had swallowed some hot tea. From me my father ran to Yushka.
"And you, my good friend, do you agree?" said my aunt, addressing Nastasey Nastasyeitch. "I am quite agreeable," responded the latter. During the whole proceedings he had not stirred and only snorting stealthily and stealthily rubbing the ends of his fingers, had fixed his foxy eyes by turns on me, on my father, and on Yushka. We afforded him real gratification!
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