Page 160 - the-idiot

that the ladies were getting angry—over my cigar, doubtless.
One looked at me through her tortoise-shell eyeglass.
‘I took no notice, because they never said a word. If they
didn’t like the cigar, why couldn’t they say so? Not a word,
not a hint! Suddenly, and without the very slightest suspi-
cion of warning, ‘light blue’ seizes my cigar from between
my fingers, and, wheugh! out of the window with it! Well,
on flew the train, and I sat bewildered, and the young wom-
an, tall and fair, and rather red in the face, too red, glared at
me with flashing eyes.
‘I didn’t say a word, but with extreme courtesy, I may say
with most refined courtesy, I reached my finger and thumb
over towards the poodle, took it up delicately by the nape of
the neck, and chucked it out of the window, after the cigar.
The train went flying on, and the poodle’s yells were lost in
the distance.’
‘Oh, you naughty man!’ cried Nastasia, laughing and
clapping her hands like a child.
‘Bravo!’ said Ferdishenko. Ptitsin laughed too, though he
had been very sorry to see the general appear. Even Colia
laughed and said, ‘Bravo!’
‘And I was right, truly right,’ cried the general, with
warmth and solemnity, ‘for if cigars are forbidden in rail-
way carriages, poodles are much more so.’
‘Well, and what did the lady do?’ asked Nastasia, impa-
tiently.
‘ She—ah, that’s where all the mischief of it lies!’ replied
Ivolgin, frowning. ‘Without a word, as it were, of warning,
she slapped me on the cheek! An extraordinary woman!’

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