an observation, young man: it's not the proper thing to come into another person's room like this, without asking leave.'
I! . . . young man! . . . how dared he! . . . I grew crimson with fury.
'You cannot be aware who I am,' I rejoined, in a manner no longer free-and-easy, but haughty. 'I am the grandson of the mistress here.'
'That's all the same to me,' retorted Baburin, setting to work with his towel again. 'Though you are the seignorial grandson, you have no right to come into other people's rooms.'
'Other people's? What do you mean? I'm—at home here—everywhere.'
'No, excuse me: here—I'm at home; since this room has been assigned to me, by agreement, in exchange for my work.'
'Don't teach me, if you please,' I interrupted: 'I know better than you what . . .'
'You must be taught,' he interrupted in his turn, 'for you're at an age when you . . . I know my duties, but I know my rights too very well, and if you continue to speak to me in that way, I shall have to ask you to go out of the room . . .'
There is no knowing how our dispute would have ended if Punin had not at that instant entered, shuffling and shambling from side to side. He most likely guessed from the expression of our faces that some unpleasantness had
91
