"To be strictly truthful," said the Count, who had a Quixotic fear of
misleading in the smallest degree any one to whom he was speaking, "to be
exactly honest, there is a circumstance which makes it less remarkable
that Fischelowitz should have given me the doll at once."
"Of course, of course!" exclaimed the Cossack, anxious to appear credulous
out of kindness. "Fischelowitz knows as well as you do yourself how safe
you are to get the money to-morrow."
"Naturally," replied the Count, with great calmness. "But besides that,
the Gigerl is broken--badly broken in the middle, and the musical box is
spoiled too."
"Fischelowitz must have been very angry," observed Dumnoff.
"Not at all. It was his wife. Akulina knocked it from the counter into the
farthest corner of the shop."
"Tell us all about it," said Schmidt, more interested than ever.
"Ah, that--that is quite another matter," answered the Count, reddening
perceptibly as he remembered Akulina's furious abuse.
"If you do not, I have no doubt that she will," said Dumnoff, taking
another sip. "She always gives the news of you, before you come in the
morning, before we have made our first hundred."
The Count grew redder still, the angry colour mantling in his lean cheeks.
He hesitated a moment, and then made up his mind.
"If that is likely to happen," he cried, "I had better tell you the truth
myself, instead of giving her an opportunity of distorting it."
"Much better," said the Cossack, eagerly.
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