Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com
give peace. Everything’s going round, the stove, and every-
thing. I want to dance. Let everyone see how I dance... let
them see how beautifully I dance..’
She really meant it. She pulled a white cambric hand-
kerchief out of her pocket, and took it by one corner in her
right hand, to wave it in the dance. Mitya ran to and fro, the
girls were quiet, and got ready to break into a dancing song
at the first signal. Maximov, hearing that Grushenka want-
ed to dance, squealed with delight, and ran skipping about
in front of her, humming:
With legs so slim and sides so trim
And its little tail curled tight.
But Grushenka waved her handkerchief at him and
drove him away.
‘Sh-h! Mitya, why don’t they come? Let everyone come...
to look on. Call them in, too, that were locked in.... Why did
you lock them in? Tell them I’m going to dance. Let them
look on, too..’
Mitya walked with a drunken swagger to the locked door,
and began knocking to the Poles with his fist.
‘Hi, you... Podvysotskis! Come, she’s going to dance. She
calls you.’
‘Lajdak!’ one of the Poles shouted in reply.
‘You’re a lajdak yourself! You’re a little scoundrel, that’s
what you are.’
‘Leave off laughing at Poland,’ said Kalganov senten-
tiously. He too was drunk.
‘Be quiet, boy! If I call him a scoundrel, it doesn’t mean
that I called all Poland so. One lajdak doesn’t make a Po-