The Englishmen reply: "That's not a weighty matter--you can learn to
know them: we will arrange a grendezvous for you."
The left-handed man was abashed. "Why," says he, "worry the girls
vainly?" and he refused. "A grendezvous," says he, "is a matter for the
gentry, and not suitable for such as me, and if folks were to hear of
that at home, in Tula, they would ridicule me greatly."
The Englishmen became curious: "But if you don't have grendezvous," say
they, "how do you manage in such cases to make a pleasing choice?"
The left-handed man explained to them our position. "With us," says
he, "when a man wishes to display a more particular intention with
regard to a girl, he sends the confabulation-woman, and when she makes
the proposal, then we go together, very politely, to the house, and
we look the girl over, not in secrecy, but in the presence of all her
relatives."
They understood, but answered that they had no confabulation-women,
and such a custom was not in practice, but the left-handed man said:
"That's all the more agreeable, because if you are going to occupy
yourself with such a matter, it must be with a definite intention, and
as I do not feel that towards a foreign nation, then why torment the
girls?"
He pleased the Englishmen in these arguments, also, so that they again
began to clap him on the shoulders and the knees, with pleasantness,
and asked: "We would just like to know, out of mere curiosity: what
defect have you observed in our girls, and why do you shun them?"
Thereupon the left-handed man answered them frankly: "I accuse them
of no defect, but what does not please me is that their dress sort
of flutters about them, and one cannot make out what they have on,
and for what purpose; first there is some sort of thing or other, and
underneath there's another pinned on, and on their arms are some
sort of leglets or other. Their plush cloak is exactly like an ape--a
sapajou."
The Englishmen burst out laughing and say: "Where's the objection in
that?"
"There's no objection," replies the left-handed man, "only I'm afraid
it would make me blush to watch and wait while she is getting herself
out of all that."
"Is it possible," say they, "that your fashion is better?"
"Our fashion," he replies, "in Tula is simple: every woman wears a
roundabout,[32] and even the greatest ladies wear our roundabouts."
They also showed him to their ladies, and there they poured tea for
him, and inquired: "Why do you frown?"
He replies: "Because," says he, "we are not used to taking it very
sweet."
Then they gave him a lump of sugar to nibble at, in Russian fashion.
They argued with him that it could not be as nice that way, but he
said: "To our taste it is more tasty thus."
In no way could the English disconcert him, or make him feel attracted
by their manner of life, and merely succeeded in persuading him to
remain their guest for a short time, by promising that during that time
they would take him about to divers factories, and show him all their
art.
"And then," said they, "we will take him to his ship, and _deliver him
alive in Petrograd_."
To this he agreed.