From Tolstoy's "Hadji Murad"



`Where have the batmen got to?' asked Butler. `Gone off drinking,' said Marya Dmitrievna. `What is it you want?' `I want the door opened. You've got a whole horde of mountaineers outside. Hadji Murad has come.' `Go on, tell me another one,' said Marya Dmitrievna, smiling. `It's not a joke. It's true. They are just outside.' `What? Really?' said Marya Dmitricvna. `Why should I want to make it up? Go and look -- they are just outside. `Well, there's a thing!' said Marya Dmitrievna, rolling down her sleeves and feeling for the pins in her thick plait of hair. `I'll go and wake up Ivan Matvcovich, then!' `No, I'll go. You, Bondarenko, go and open the door,' said Butler. `That's all right by me,' said Marya Dmitrievna and returned to her work.

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