Kandid was all ears, attempting to discover some hidden meaning in this conversation, but could understand nothing. He could only perceive that the two of them were making fun of Nava's mother, that Nava's mother was offended and was trying to hide this or turn the conversation in another direction, and was failing to do so. Nava, meanwhile, had raised her head and was gazing from one to another of the speakers.
"You'd think you'd been born in the lake yourself," said Nava's mother to the pregnant woman, now displaying open irritation.
"Oh, no," said she, "but I never managed to pick up such a broad education, and my daughter," she slapped her belly, "will be born in the lake. That makes all the difference."
"Why don't you leave mam alone, fat old woman?" said Nava suddenly. "Take a look at yourself, what you look like, then start upsetting people! Or I'll tell my husband, and he'll warm your fat backside with a stick, teach you to bother her."
The women, all three, roared with laughter. "Dummy!" Nava started yelling. "What're they laughing at me for?"
Still laughing, the women looked at Kandid. Nava's mother, with surprise, the pregnant woman indifferently, the girl more enigmatically, but with apparent interest.
"What's this Dummy, then?" asked Nava's mother. "It's my husband," said Nava. "See how nice he is. He saved me from the robbers..."
"What d'you mean, husband?" the pregnant woman brought out in a unfriendly tone. "Don't make things up, little girl."
"Same to you," Nava said at once. "What're you butting in for? What's it to you? Is he your husband then? If you want to know, I'm not talking to you anyway. I'm talking to mam. And you butt in, like the old man, unasked and without a by your leave..."
"Are you really her husband then?" asked the pregnant woman of Kandid.
Nava became silent. Her mother embraced her and pressed her to herself. She looked at Kandid with loathing and horror.
Only the girl was still smiling, and her smile was so pleasant and tender that Kandid addressed himself to her.
"No, no, of course not," he said. "She's no wife of mine. She's, my daughter..." He wanted to say that Nava had niursed him, that he loved her very much and he was very pleased that everything had turned out so well, though he didn't understand a thing.
But the girl suddenly dissolved in laughter, her arms waving. "I knew it," she groaned. "It's not her husband ... it's hers!" she pointed at Nava's mother. "It's ... her ... husband! Oh dear, oh dear!"
The face of the pregnant woman expressed cheerful bewilderment and she began to examine Kandid from top to toe with exaggerated minuteness.
"My, my, my ..." she began in her former tone, but Nava's mother said irritably, "Stop it now! That's enough of it! Go away from here," she said to Kandid. "Go on, go on, what're you waiting for? Go on into the forest! ..."
"Who would have thought that the root of love could be so bitter ... so filthy ... so hairy... " She intercepted Nava's mother's furious glance and gestured to her. "All right, all right," said she, "don't get angry, my dear. A joke's a joke. We're just very pleased you've found your daughter. It's an incredible piece of luck..."
"Are we going to do any work or not?" said Nava's mother. "Or are we going to stand here gossiping?"
"I'm going, don't get angry," said the girl. "The output's just starting anyway."
She nodded, and once more smiled at Kandid, and ran lightly up the slope. Kandid watched her running - controlled, professional, not womanly. She ran up to the summit and, without pausing, dived into the lilac mist.
"Spider Pond hasn't been cleaned out yet," said the pregnant woman anxiously, "we've always got these muddles with the constructors... What are we going to do?"
"It's okay," said Nava's mother, "we'll go along to the valley."
"I understand, but it's extremely stupid all the same - take all that trouble, carry a nearly adult person all the way to the valley, when we have our own pond."
She gave a vigorous shrug and suddenly pulled a face.
"You ought to sit down," said Nava's mother; she looked about her, stretched out her arm in the direction of the deadlings and snapped her fingers.
One of the deadlings at once left his place and ran up, slipping on the grass in its haste; it fell to its knees and all of a sudden flowed somehow, fashioned itself into a curve, and flattened itself out.
Kandid blinked: the deadling had ceased to exist, what did exist was an apparently comfortable and convenient armchair. The pregnant woman, with a groan of relief, sank into her soft seat and reclined her head against its soft back.
"Soon, now," she purred, extending her legs plea-surably, "make it soon..."
Nava's mother squatted in front of her daughter and began to look her in the eyes.
"She's grown," said she. "Run wild. Glad?"
"Well of course I am," said Nava, uncertainly. "You're my mam, after all. I dreamed about you every night... And this is Dummy, mam..." And Nava started talking.
