Virgin Soil

plough going well into the earth, not a surface plough g

e-storied house on Officers Street in St. Petersburg. Noisily shuffling his down-trodden goloshes and slowly swinging his heavy, clumsy figure, the man at last reached th

e?” he called out i

” an equally coarse woman’s voice

urina?” asked

I. Are you

s goloshes, and hanging his shabby coat on a nail, he

ble sat a woman of about thirty. She was bareheaded, clad in a black stuff dress, and was smoking a cigarette. On catching sight of Ostrodumov she extended her broad, red hand without a word. He shook it, also without saying anything, dropped into a

a bit alike. In these two slovenly figures, with their coarse lips, teeth, and noses (

Nejdanov?” Os

ectly. He has gone to the

v spat to

g about nowadays? One ca

ok out anoth

e remarked, ligh

ence! One would think we had no work to do. Heaven knows how w

Moscow?” Mashurina

er came thre

you re

v nodded

? Wha

s must go

the cigarette o

“They say everything i

eliable and must be got rid of. Besides that, th

ay so in t

es

h was twisted into a small plait at the b

thing is settled, then there

do anything without money, an

became t

e money,” she said so

at I have come about,

letter?” Mashuri

d you like

ever mind, we can read

say. I am speaking the tr

king and, as before, clouds of smoke rose silently from

shes was heard

s,” Mashuri

a head was thrust in, but it

came into the room with its feeble body, short arms, and bandy legs, which were a little lame. As soon as Mashurina and Ostrodumov caught sight of this head, an expression of contempt mixed with condescension came over their f

ed in a squeaky voice. “A duet? Why n

v, Mr. Paklin?” Ostr

r. Ostr

ack directly,

hear that, M

urina. She frowned, and continued

. I am so sorry. I always forget your

hrugged her

ame. What more do you want? And why do you always keep on aski

seeing you here, and of talking to you! My curiosity is due to a bad, old-fashioned habit. But with regard to your name, it is awkward, somehow,

you to talk

a nervous,

your hand. Don’t be cross. I know yo

Mashurina looked at him se

he said with the same expression of sev

Ostrodumov added

a! and you, Oh Pemien! why you are so unfrien

nd not only Mashurina, that you are not to be depe

ed round on

en if I were, that is no reason why you should not trust me. In the second, I have been flattered with your confidenc

s teeth, but Paklin continued without th

I am not at all a cheerful pers

assumed a dejected, almost scared expression; it became funny and rather sarcastic only when he

ogress in your truly philanthropical art? Is it very hard to hel

had left her home in the south of Russia about two years before, and with about twelve shillings in her pocket had arrived in Moscow, where she had entered a lying- in institution and had worked very hard to gain the ne

ughed at

But it serves me right for being such a d

ld have given anything to be attractive to them. The consciousness of his pitiful appearance was a much sorer point with him than his low origin and unenviable position in society. His father, a member of the lower middle class, had, through all sorts of dishonest means

f our story Paklin was twenty-eight years old. He had a great many acquaintances among students and young people, who liked him for his cynical wit, his harmless, though biting, self-confident speeches, his one-sided, unpedantic, though genuine, learning, but occasionally they sat on him severely. Once, on arriving late at a political meeting, he hastily began excusing himself. “Paklin was afraid!” some one sang out from a corner of th

repeated. “He has been out of sorts lately

ina sc

s. As for falling in love, he has ne

u?” almost escap

e I have an important matter to t

strodumov asked

that is, our c

believe him. “Who knows? He’s

small unattractive eyes, fixed on the door, brightened, as if

with a cap on his head and a bundle of books under his arm