"Let it be!" said Schmidt sharply, and Dumnoff withdrew his hand again. He
had fallen into the habit of always doing what the Cossack told him to do,
obeying mutely, like a well-trained dog, though he obeyed no one else. The
descendant of freemen instinctively lorded it over the descendant of the
serf, and the latter as instinctively submitted.
The Count's temper, however, was singularly changeable on this day, for he
did not seem to resent Dumnoff's meditated attack upon the package, as he
would certainly have done under ordinary circumstances.
"If you are so very curious to know what it is, I will tell you," he said.
"You know the Wiener Gigerl?"
"Of course," answered both men together.
"Well, that is it, in that parcel."
"The Gigerl!" exclaimed the Cossack. Dumnoff only opened his small eyes in
stupid amazement. Both knew something of the circumstances under which
Fischelowitz had come into possession of the doll, and both knew what
store the tobacconist set by it.
"Then you have paid the fifty marks?" asked Schmidt, whose curiosity was
roused instead of satisfied.
"No. I shall pay the money to-morrow. I have promised to do so. As it
chances, it will be convenient." The Count smiled to himself in a meaning
way, as though already enjoying the triumph of laying the gold pieces upon
the counter under Akulina's flat nose.
"And yet Fischelowitz has already given it to you! He must be very sure of
you--" With his usual lack of tact, Schmidt had gone further than he meant
to do, but the transaction savoured of the marvellous.
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