The Orloff Couple and Malva

wife's room with a gloomy, disturbed expression on his face. Felizata had been ill. Matrona was alone in the room, and received her husband

dryly, sitting down on a chair, and drawing towa

then?" ... Matrona

ther. I am ashamed of it now; that sort of thing leads to no good.... Women profit by such weak moments to get the better of the

sis, but without looking at her. She, on

d painfully. "You regret then that you kissed and caressed me? It is terrible for me to hear this, very terrible.... Your

lived together in our cellar ... you know yourself what a life it was! Already the recollection of it even, pains me.... Now we have crept out into the light, and ... I feel half

said Matrona in a serious tone. "I only beg this of yo

er it, and I feel sure there is no good to be got out of that sort of thing. Our former life was indeed thorny, b

cally. "You have no tim

d Orloff, smiling. "But, somehow, I don't understand why, I don't want to

slowly, and stared

y well here, even if you have plenty of work. The doctors all like you, and you behave so

, and many others also. I can see for myself that I am not their equal.... I can feel that I am not worthy to hand them a glass of water. They cured Mischka Ussoff, and they rejoiced at doing so ... and I cannot understand that. I cannot see what reason there is for rejoicing at a man's recovering f

one of the patients gets better ... good heavens, what a fuss is made about her!... When the time comes for her to leave they help her with advi

ut it only makes me wonder ...

his forehead, looking all the time a

d looking tenderly into his face, she talked long and earnestly, about mankind, and the heavy burden of life it was called on to bear. He, however

d strength enough. Why then should you want to destroy it? According to what you have just said it does more good than harm. As

urst out

l take it! The people are dying all around like flies, and I am all the better off because of it!..

As he went along the corridor the thought crossed his mind again,

.. Though she is only a woman,

easant thought; though the moans and groans of the pat

ereby attract the attention of the whole world. His position in the Infirmary seemed to him to be an awkward one; he felt himself to be between two stools. The doctors and medical students stood above him, the attendants beneath him; he was not the equal of either. A feeling of loneliness came over him, and it appeared to him as if fate, in order to make a sport of him, had tom him away from his own place, and were whirling him about like a feather in the wind. He felt pity for himself, and sought out his wife in order that she might console him. This he did often against his will, for he had an idea that

st or to grumble about things, but when she thought of her former life in the dark cellar, of its narrow round of cares, of her husband and of her trade, she, in spite of herself, could not help contrasting that past with her present condition; and the dim pictures of her former existence melted into

r about her former life. Matrona told her everything quite openly, and witho

ile?" asked th

ou will scarcely believe me, but I had no notion then how sad a

t the same time that Grigori was guilty toward her. Sometimes when talking to him she would adopt almost a protective tone, for his constant restlessness made her feel sorry for him. Now and then a doubt arose in

r position would have been contented to go on from day to day, leading the grey, cheerless life of the ordinary worker—the life of poverty, alternating with starvation—their energies completely absorbed in the task of pr

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