Anya sees that Andrey has let twenty-eight slip. At any other time
she would have pointed it out to him, but now when her vanity lies
in the saucer with the kopecks, she is triumphant.

"Twenty-three!" Grisha goes on, "Semyon Semyonitch! Nine!"

"A beetle, a beetle," cries Sonya, pointing to a beetle running
across the table. "Aie!"

"Don't kill it," says Alyosha, in his deep bass, "perhaps it's got
children . . . ."

Sonya follows the black beetle with her eyes and wonders about its
children: what tiny little beetles they must be!

"Forty-three! One!" Grisha goes on, unhappy at the thought that
Anya has already made two fours. "Six!"

"Game! I have got the game!" cries Sonya, rolling her eyes coquettishly
and giggling.

The players' countenances lengthen.

"Must make sure!" says Grisha, looking with hatred at Sonya.

Exercising his rights as a big boy, and the cleverest, Grisha takes
upon himself to decide. What he wants, that they do. Sonya's reckoning
is slowly and carefully verified, and to the great regret of her
fellow players, it appears that she has not cheated. Another game