The lilac back shuddered, but it was probably just a coincidence since a foreigner could not possibly have understood what Korovyov and his companion were saying in Russian.

" Iz goot? " asked the lilac customer sternly.

296 The Master and Margarita

The best, " replied the clerk, teasing the skin up playfully with his knife.

" Goot I like, bat, no, " said the foreigner sharply.

" But of course! " was the salesman's enthusiastic reply.

At this point our friends moved away from the foreigner and his salmon and walked over to the confectionery counter.

" It's hot today, " said Korovyov to a young, red-cheeked salesgirl and received no response from her. " How much are the tangerines? " he then asked her.

Thirty kopecks a kilo, " replied the salesgirl.

" Outrageous, " remarked Korovyov with a sigh, " Oh well, too bad..." After some further deliberation, he said to his companion, Try one, Behemoth."

The fat man tucked his primus under his arm, grabbed the tangerine at the top of the pyramid, gobbled it down, skin and all, and then reached for another.

The salesgirl was seized with mortal terror.

" You've gone out of your mind! " she screamed, the color draining from her cheeks. " Give me your receipt! Your receipt! " she said dropping the pair of tongs she was holding.

" My dear, my sweet girl, my beauty, " rasped Korovyov, leaning himself over the counter and winking at the salesgirl, " We're all out of foreign currency today... what can you do! But I give you my word, we'll settle everything in cash next time, by Monday at the latest! We live close by, on Sadovaya, where the fire was..."

After gulping down a third tangerine, Behemoth thrust his paw into an ingenious arrangement of chocolate bars, pulled one out from the bottom, causing the whole pyramid to collapse, and swallowed it whole along with its gold wrapper.

The clerks at the fish counter stood petrified, their knives in their hands, the lilac foreigner turned to face the thieves, thereby revealing that Behemoth had been mistaken: rather than lacking something, his face, on the contrary, had rather more than was needed—of hanging jowls and darting eyes.

Turning completely yellow, the salesgirl shouted out miserably to the whole store, " Palosich! Palosich! "

Customers from the dry-goods department came running in response to her screams while Behemoth, abandoning the seductions of the confectionery counter, thrust his paw into a barrel of " Choice Kerch Herring, " pulled out a pair and gulped them down, spitting out the tails.

" Palosich! " came another desperate cry from the confectionery counter, and at the fish counter a clerk with a goatee barked out, " What the hell do you think you're doing, scum?! "