After waiting a while at the entrance, and making sundry jokes at the
expense of Sina and Yourii, the others wandered along the river-bank.
The men lit cigarettes and threw the matches into the water, watching
these make large circles on the surface of the stream. Lida, with arms
a-kimbo, tripped along, singing softly as she went, and her pretty
little feet in dainty yellow shoes now and again executed an impromptu
dance. Lialia picked flowers, which she flung at Riasantzeff, caressing
him with her eyes.

"What do you say to a drink?" Ivanoff asked Sanine.

"Splendid idea!" replied the other.

Getting into the boat, they uncorked several bottles of beer and
proceeded to drink.

"Shocking intemperance!" cried Lialia, pelting them with tufts of
grass.

"First-rate stuff!" said Ivanoff, smacking his lips.

Sanine laughed.

"I have often wondered why people are so dead against alcohol," he said
jestingly. "In my opinion only a drunken man lives his life as it ought
to be lived."

"That is, like a brute!" replied Novikoff from the bank.

"Very likely," said Sanine, "but at any rate a drunken man only does
just that which he wants to do. If he has a mind to sing, he sings; if
he wants to dance, he dances; and is not ashamed to be merry and
jolly."

"And he fights too, sometimes," remarked Riasantzeff.