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Pantaleone was obviously putting a good face on it as he had done the day before; but when he was seated in the carriage with Sanin, when the coachman had cracked his whip and the horses had started off at a gallop, a sudden change came over the old singer and friend of Paduan dragoons. He began to be confused and positively faint-hearted.
Sanin brought Signora Roselli a glass of water, gave her his word of honour that he would come directly, escorted her down the stairs to the street, and when he was back in his own room, positively threw up his arms and opened his eyes wide in his amazement. 'Well, he thought, 'well, now life is going round in a whirl!
At the beginning of the walk, Sanin, as the elder, and so more reflective, turned the conversation on fate and predestination, and the nature and meaning of man's destiny; but the conversation quickly took a less serious turn.
Suddenly at a turn in the road, a familiar figure came from behind a tall poplar, took a few steps forward and stood still. Sanin looked more closely.... Heavens! it was Emil! 'But does he know anything about it? he demanded of Pantaleone. 'I tell you I'm a madman, the poor Italian wailed despairingly, almost in a shriek.
Then Sanin remarks quietly, "But I deny it!" and he adds, with a calmness provoking to the two disputants, "Christianity has played an abominable role in history, and the name of Jesus Christ will for some time yet oppress humanity like a curse."
Sanin weighed out a quarter of a pound, found some paper, twisted it into a cone, tipped the peppermints into it, spilt them, tipped them in again, spilt them again, at last handed them to the boy, and took the money.... The boy gazed at him in amazement, twisting his cap in his hands on his stomach, and in the next room, Gemma was stifling with suppressed laughter.
Ten minutes later Maria Nikolaevna appeared again, escorted by her husband. She went up to Sanin ... and her walk was such that some eccentrics of that alas! already, distant day, were simply crazy over her walk alone. 'That woman, when she comes towards one, seems as though she is bringing all the happiness of one's life to meet one, one of them used to say.
'And would they kill him straight away or maim him? He did not go to bed, and fell asleep in his clothes on the sofa. Some one slapped him on the shoulder.... He opened his eyes, and saw Pantaleone. 'He sleeps like Alexander of Macedon on the eve of the battle of Babylon! cried the old man. 'What o'clock is it? inquired Sanin.
Sanin felt all at once so happy, his heart was filled with such childish gaiety at the thought, that here, after all, the dreams had come true to which he had abandoned himself not long ago in these very rooms, his whole being was in such a turmoil that he went quickly out into the shop.
Go on, tell me. Maria Nikolaevna walked on, and kept looking at Sanin. She was tall her face was almost on a level with his face. He began to talk at first reluctantly, unskilfully but afterwards he talked more freely, chattered away in fact. Maria Nikolaevna was a very good listener; and moreover she seemed herself so frank, that she led others unconsciously on to frankness.
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