Mikhail Saltykov

A Family of Noblemen Mikhail Saltykov

"What else?" she asked, looking at him keenly. "That's all," he replied evasively. "Don't lie. There is something else. I can see it by your eyes." Anton Vasilyev still hesitated and continued to shift from one foot to the other. "What is it? Tell me!" she shouted imperiously. "Out with it, out with it! And don't wag your whole body like a dog, Telltale!" Arina Petrovna liked to call her managers and domestics by nicknames. She used Telltale for Anton Vasilyev, not because she had found him to carry gossip treacherously, but simply because he had a loose tongue. The centre of the estate that he managed was an important trading village in which there were many taverns. He liked to take a glass of tea in a tavern and boast of his mistress's great power. And in the course of his boasting he would sometimes unconsciously blab out secrets.