h their red tear-stained lids.

"Husband?" whispered Pasha, and was suddenly so frightened that her
hands and feet turned cold. "What husband?" she repeated, beginning
to tremble.

"My husband, . . . Nikolay Petrovitch Kolpakov."

"N . . . no, madam. . . . I . . . I don't know any husband."

A minute passed in silence. The stranger several times passed her
handkerchief over her pale lips and held her breath to stop her
inward trembling, while Pasha stood before her motionless, like a
post, and looked at her with astonishment and terror.

"So you say he is not here?" the lady asked, this time speaking
with a firm voice and smiling oddly.

"I . . . I don't know who it is you are asking about."

"You are horrid, mean, vile . . ." the stranger muttered, scanning
Pasha with hatred and repulsion. "Yes, yes . . . you are horrid. I
am very, very glad that at last I can tell you so!"

Pasha felt that on this lady in black with the angry eyes and white
slender fingers she produced the impression of something horrid and
unseemly, and she felt ashamed of her chubby red cheeks, the pock-mark
on her nose, and the fringe on her forehead, which never could be
combed back. And it seemed to her that if she had been thin, and
had had no powder on her face and no fringe on her forehead, then
she could have disguised the fact that she was not "respectable,"
and she would not have felt so frightened and ashamed to stand
facing this unknown, mysterious lady.

"Where is my husband?" the lady went on. "Though I don't care whether
he is here or not, but I ought to tell you that the money has been
missed, and they are looking for Nikolay Petrovitch. . . . They
mean to arrest him. That's your doing!"

The lady got up and walked about the room in great excitement. Pasha
looked at her and was so frightened that she could not understand.

"He'll be found and arrested to-day," said the lady, and she gave
a sob, and in that sound could be heard her resentment and vexation.
"I know who has brought him to this awful position! Low, horrid
creature! Loathsome, mercenary hussy!" The lady's lips worked and
her nose wrinkled up with disgust. "I am helpless, do you hear, you
low woman? . . . I am helpless; you are stronger than I am, but
there is One to defend me and my children! God sees all! He is just!
He will punish you for every tear I have shed, for all my sleepless
nights! The time will come; you will think of me! . . ."

Silence followed