"No, why disturb the old fellow?" said the countess. "Besides, you wouldn`t have room to turn round there. If you must go, go to the Melyukovs`"

‘I am very much obliged to you, ma’am,’ said Ralph with a scarcely perceptible sneer. ‘An absence of business habits in this family leads, apparently, to a great waste of words before business—when it does come under consideration—is arrived at, at all.’