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groan of bells being cast down from their belfries. It looked as
though there was going to be a bit of rain.
Without speaking a word Pavel Feodorovich hired a car–
riage to take them to Yakov Karpovich Skudrin's at Skudrin
bridge. The carriage ratded over the medicinal camomile of the
ancient cobbled streets and the coachman told them the latest
town gossip about the bells, explaining that many people's nerves
had been shattered by the tension of waiting for bells to fall and
the thunder of the impact when they hit the ground-the same
as happens to inexperienced riflemen who shut their eyes to brace
themselves for the report. When the Bezdetovs arrived, old Yakov
Karpovich was in the yard, chopping logs for firewood. Maria
Klimovna was shoveling dung out of the cowshed. Yakov Karpo–
vich did not at first recognize them, but when he did, he looked
pleased and began to smile. Groaning and wheezing, he said:
"Ah, the dealers! ... I've got a new theory about the pro–
letariat for you!" Maria Klimovna, her hands under her apron,
gave a low bow and sang out her greeting:
"Dear guests, a good welcome to you, long-awaited guests!"
Katerina, in a skirt tucked up to her thighs and covered
with dirt, rushed headlong into the house to change. From over
the housetops, startling the rooks, came the whine of a falling
bell. Maria Klimovna crossed herself. The bell thudded louder
than a cannon and the window-panes tinkled.
It
certainly was
enough to set your nerves on edge.
They all went into the house. Maria Klimovna went to her
pots and pans and soon the samovar sang out at her feet. Kater–
ina came in in her Sunday best and curtsied to the visitors. The
old man threw off his felt boots and, cooing like a dove, walked
barefooted around his guests, who went to wash up and then sat
down side by side at the table, in silence. Their eyes were vacant
like those of dead men. Maria Klimovna inquired after their
health and laid out an assortment of seventeenth-century food on
the table. The visitors put a bottle of cognac on the table. Yakov
Karpovich was the only one to talk. He hummed and hawed and
