rising from his seat, took off his grey summer jacket, threw it on the back of a chair, and threw his tie on a small coffee table. Then he unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, took a deep breath, as if he had lifted a heavy weight from his shoulders, and sank into a chair in relief. Bagila looked away from the books, she looked at the people at the table and saw that everyone was sitting in shirts. Turgat also took off his jacket and sat, imitating her father, whilst unbuttoning the top two buttons on his shirt. Bagila could not understand how adults who had known each other for a long time, having met at the table, so easily became prisoners of some stupid conven- tions. Each of those present has already made their toast. All words their wishes were similar to each other, as well as thoughts that were generously shared with each other at this table. Even Turgat, who did his best to ap- pear well-educated and cultured, mumbled some boring tirade about friendship. Those who sat at the table were taught restraint, they listened to everything, and as soon as Turgat finished, everyone moved and began to thank him so fervently, as if from the day of their birth they had not heard deeper wisdom. Then Karatai raised his glass to Malika’s health, to her unfading beauty. These words excited the guests again. Only the owner of the house, Sargel, brought his thin lips closer to the crystal rim of his glass, as if wondering if they were going to poison him in his own house, and tasted the cognac with the tip of his tongue, smacking his lips. At the same time, his face remained motionless, Surged was clearly not at ease. So, he protested to his wife because she drank cognac to the bottom in front of people. Malika didn’t care about the protest. Her husband simply did not exist for her now. Sargel closed his hand over his glass and squeezed it with his fist so violently that Bagila was afraid that the glass would splatter in all directions. Bile was clearly accumulating on both sides. At the same time, Malika did not at all give in to her jealous and suspicious husband. It seems that everyone at the table managed to figure out that the hostile relationship between the

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