‘Very good. Well, but if she got sick of that, and she deceived you?’

‘I should kill her.’

‘And if she ran away?’

‘I should catch her up and kill her all the same.’

‘Oh. And suppose now I were your wife, what would you do then?’

Byelovzorov was silent a minute. ‘I should kill myself� .’

Zina�da laughed. ‘I see yours is not a long story.’

The next forfeit was Zina�da’s. She looked at the ceiling and considered. ‘Well, listen, she began at last, ‘what I have thought of� . Picture to yourselves a magnificent palace, a summer night, and a marvellous ball. This ball is given by a young queen. Everywhere gold and marble, crystal, silk, lights, diamonds, flowers, fragrant scents, every caprice of luxury.’