"Well?” Captain Zarubkin’s wife called out impatiently to her husband, rising from the sofa and turning to face him as he entered.  
“He doesn’t know anything about it,” he replied indifferently, as if the matter were of no interest to him. Then he asked in a businesslike tone: “Nothing for me from the office?”
 
“Why should I know? Am I your errand boy?”
 
“How they dilly-dally! If only the package doesn’t come too late. It’s so important!”
 
“Idiot!”
 
“Who’s an idiot?”
 
“You, with your indifference, your stupid egoism.”
 
The captain said nothing. He was neither surprised nor insulted. On the contrary, the smile on his face was as though he had received a compliment. These wifely animadversions, probably oft-heard, by no means interfered with his domestic peace.
 
“It can’t be that the man doesn’t know when his wife is coming back home,” Mrs. Zarubkin continued excitedly. “She’s written to him every day of the four months that she’s been away. The postmaster told me so.”
 
“Semyonov! Ho, Semyonov! Has any one from the office been here?”
 
“I don’t know, your Excellency,” came in a loud, clear voice from back of the room.
 
“Why don’t you know? Where have you been?”
 
“I went to Abramka, your Excellency.”
 
“The tailor again?”
 
“Yes, your Excellency, the tailor Abramka.”
 
The captain spat in annoyance.
 
“And where is Krynka?”
 
“He went to market, your Excellency.”
 
“Was he told to go to market?”
 
“Yes, your Excellency.”
 
The captain spat again.
 
“Why do you keep spitting? Such vulgar manners!” his wife cried angrily. “You behave at home like a drunken subaltern. You haven’t the least consideration for your wife. You are so coarse in your behaviour towards me! Do, please, go to your office.”
 
“Semyonov.”
 
“Your Excellency?”
 
“If the package comes, please have it sent back to the office and say I’ve gone there. And listen! Some one must always be here. I won’t have everybody out of the house at the same time. Do you hear?”
 
“Yes, your Excellency.”
 
The captain put on his cap to go. In the doorway he turned and addressed his wife.
 
“Please, Tasya, please don’t send all the servants on your errands at the same time. Something important may turn up, and then there’s nobody here to attend to it.”
 
He went out, and his wife remained reclining in the sofa corner as if his plea were no concern of hers. But scarcely had he left the house............