re being handed by the downstairs
Masha, a dark girl with a crimson ribbon in her hair. The old women
had had enough to eat before the morning was over, and an hour
before supper had had tea and buns, and so they were now eating
with effort--as it were, from a sense of duty.

"Oh, my girl!" sighed Auntie, as Anna Akimovna ran into the dining-room
and sat down beside her. "You've frightened me to death!"

Every one in the house was pleased when Anna Akimovna was in good
spirits and played pranks; this always reminded them that the old
men were dead and that the old women had no authority in the house,
and any one could do as he liked without any fear of being sharply
called to account for it. Only the two old women glanced askance
at Anna Akimovna with amazement: she was humming, and it was a sin
to sing at table.

"Our mistress, our beauty, our picture," Agafyushka began chanting
with sugary sweetness. "Our precious jewel! The people, the people
that have come to-day to look at our queen. Lord have mercy upon
us! Generals, and officers and gentlemen. . . . I kept looking out
of window and counting and counting till I gave it up."

"I'd as soon they did not come at all," said Auntie; she looked
sadly at her niece and added: "They only waste the time for my poor
orphan girl."

Anna Akimovna felt hungry, as she had eaten nothing since the
morning. They poured her out some very bitter liqueur; she drank
it off, and tasted the salt meat with mustard, and thought it
extraordinarily nice. Then the downstairs Masha brought in the
turkey, the pickled apples and the gooseberries. And that pleased
her, too. There was only one thing that was disagreeable: there was
a draught of hot air from the tiled stove; it was stiflingly close
and every one's cheeks were burning. After supper the cloth was
taken off and plates of peppermint biscuits, walnuts, and raisins
were brought in.

"You sit down, too . . . no need to stand there!" said Auntie to
the cook.

Agafyushka sighed and sat down to the table; Masha set a wineglass
of liqueur before her, too, and Anna Akimovna began to feel as
though Agafyushka's white neck were giving out heat like the stove.
They were all talking of how difficult it was nowadays to get
married, and saying that in old days, if men did not court beauty,
they paid attention to money, but now there was no making out what
they wanted; and while hunchbacks and cripples used to be left old
maids, nowadays me