nd bubbles, heavy footsteps resound in the
street, and an indistinct voice says:

"He thinks that because he is a Town Councillor he is also clever."

"Yes; such folk are apt to grow very proud."

"Why, all his brains put together wouldn't grease one of my boots!"

And as the voices die away the old man's falsetto trickles forth anew,
humming:

"The poor man's anger... Minika! Hi, you! Come in here, and I will give
you a bit of sugar. How is your father getting on? Is he drunk at
present?"

"No, sober, for he is taking nothing but kvas and cabbage soup."

"And what is he doing for a living?"

"Sitting at the table, and thinking."

"And has your mother been beating him again?"

"No--not again."

"And she--how is she?"

"Obliged to keep indoors."

"Well, run along with you."

Softly there next presents herself before the window Felitzata, a woman
of about forty with a hawk-like gleam in her coldly civil eyes, and a
pair of handsome lips compressed into a covert smile. She is well known
throughout the suburb, and once had a son, Nilushka, who was the local
"God's fool." Also she has the reputation of knowing what is correct
procedure on all and sundry occasions, as well as of being skilled in
lamentations, funeral rites, and festivities in connection with the
musterings of recruits. Lastly she has had a hip broken, so that she
walks with an inclination towards the left.

Her fellow women say of her that her veins contain "a drop of gentle
blood"; but probably the statement is inspired by no more than the
fact that she treats everyone with the same cold civility.
Nevertheless, there is something peculiar about her, for her hands are
slender and have long fingers, and her head is haughtily poised, and
her voice has a metallic ring, even though the metal has, as it were,
grown dull and rusty. Also, she speaks of everyone, herself included,
in the most rough and downright terms, yet terms which are so simple
that, though her talk may be disconcerting to listen to, it could never
be called obscene.

For instance, once I overheard Vologonov reproach her for not leading a
more becoming life:

"You ought to have more self-restraint," said he, "seeing that you are
a lady, and also your own mistress."

"That is played out, my friend," she replied. "You see, I have had very
much to bear, for there was a time when such hunger used to gnaw at my
belly as you would never believe. It was then that my eyes became