Diamonds To Sit On/Chapter 17
CHAPTER XVI
A QUARREL
THE next day Liza and Nicky were in a bad temper.
'Liza, we must go to dinner.'
'I don't want to. I had dinner yesterday.' "What d'you mean?'
'I don't want any mock hare!'
'That's silly.'
'Well, I can't feed on vegetarian sausages any more.'
'You needn't. You can have apple charlotte to-day.'
'I don't feel like it,' shouted Liza.
'Don't shout so! Everybody can hear you.'
The young married couple lowered their voices to a tense whisper, and two minutes later Nicky understood for the first time that his beloved was not so fond of Sausages made of peas, carrots, and potatoes as he was.
'I see,' he said. 'You prefer to eat dogs instead of living on proper dietetic nourishment.'
'Be quiet!' shouted Liza. 'I like to eat meat.'
There's nothing wrong in that.'
Nicky was silent for a moment. If they were to become meat-eaters, it would make an enormous difference to his budget, and as he walked up and down the cubicle he made desperate calculations. He was a designer and never made any more than forty roubles a month. They did not pay any rental. Ten roubles went for Liza's sewing-classes. The vegetarian dinners cost thirteen roubles a month, and the rest went in one way and another, but where it went to he did not know. If they began to eat meat he would be ruined. io8
DIAMONDS TO SIT ON
‘ Fancy eating carcasses! ’ he said. ' It’s simply cannibalism under a mask of culture. AU diseases can be attributed to meat.’ ‘ Of course,’ said Liza sarcasticaUy. ‘ Angina pec toris. for instance.’ ‘ Certainly! Any organ weakened by constant meat-eating cannot possibly withstand infection. Why, just think of it, a pork chop takes a whole week out of a man’s life.’ ‘ WeU, let it! ’ said Liza. ‘ Mock hare takes half a year out of mine ! Yesterday when I was eating that roast carrot I felt I should die, but I didn’t want to tell you.’ ' Why didn’t you teU me ? ’ ' I couldn’t. I was too ill.’ Liza began to weep. ‘ Leo Tolstoy didn’t eat meat,’ said Nicky in a trembhng voice. ' I dare say,’ said Liza, gulping her tears. ‘ The Count ate asparagus.’ ‘ Asparagus isn’t meat.’ ‘ No, but he ate meat when he was writing War and Peace. Yes, meat, meat, meat! Yes, and when he wrote Anna Karenina he simply guzzled meat, meat, meat 1 ’ ' Oh, shut up ! ’ ‘ I tell you he did ! He guzzled meat, meat! ’ ' And when he wrote The Kreutzer Sonata did he also eat meat ? ’ asked Nicky bitingly. ‘ The Kreutzer Sonata is only a short thing. He couldn’t have written War and Peace on vegetarian sausage.’ ‘ Well, what are you bringing in Tolstoy for ? ’ ‘ I bringing in Tolstoy ? ’ Liza went hastily across the cubicle and put on her beret. ‘ Where are you going to ? ’ ‘ On business. Leave me alone.’ And Liza hurried out of the room. A QUARREL
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' Where can she have gone ? ’ thought Nicky. ‘ Women have been given far too much freedom under the Soviet rule,’ said a voice from the farthest pencil-box on the left. ‘ She’ll drown herself,’ said a voice on the right. Meantime, Liza was angry and ran down the street, swallowing her tears. As she went on she grew calmer. ‘ It would be quite all right if only we had a table and two chairs,’ she thought, ‘ and, after all, a “ Primus ” would be useful.’ Then she felt hungry and remem bering her quarrel with Nicky she was furious again. She hated her husband. ‘ It’s simply disgusting ! ’ she said aloud as he hunger increased. She bought herself a sausage sand wich, and as she did not hke eating in the street, she went into a doorway and enjoyed it. When she had finished eating she wiped her mouth and brushed the crumbs from her coat. Then she felt better ; looked round and saw that she was standing on the steps of the Museum of Furniture. She did not feel hke going home, and she had nowhere else to go. She had twenty copecks in her pocket, so she decided to begin her independent hfe by visiting the Museum.