For some time past she had cast down her eyes whenever he had spoken in this way; though at first she had never done so. Grischka, when he noticed this, frowned threateningly, and ground his teeth ominously. As a matter of fact Matrona was just now doing her very best to win back his heart She visited the fortune-teller's and wise women, and brought back with her all sorts of charms and spells in order to gain this object When none of these had any effect she paid for a mass in honour of the martyr St Boniface, the patron saint against drunkenness; during the whole mass she knelt in a dark corner of the church crying bitterly, whilst her trembling lips moved in wordless prayer. But ever more and more often her soul became possessed with a cold feeling of hatred against Grischka, which awoke within her dark thoughts. She felt ever less and less pity towards this man, who three years ago, with his joyful laugh and his loving words, had given to her whole life such full delight and pleasure.... Thus lived, from one day's end to another, these two children of men, who at heart were neither of them evilly disposed; whilst they waited with fatalistic simplicity for something to happen, which would break into and dispel their present meaningless, and terrible life. CHAPTER III One Monday morning, just as the Orloffs had finished their breakfast, there appeared on the threshold of their unfriendly-looking dwelling the imposing form of a police-officer. Grischka Orloff sprang frightened from his seat, and catching a glimpse of a startled and reproachful look in his wife's eye, made vain efforts to recall to his dulled brain the events of the last few days. Matrona watched him with looks that spoke of anxious reproach. In obstinate silence, though full of scared expectation, Grischka turned his troubled eyes on the unexpected guest. "This way! Down here!" cried the police-officer to some one who was coming down behind him. "It's as dark as a vault here!... What a devil's hole is this merchant Petounukoff's house!" The words were spoken in a young, cheerful voice. The police-officer moved on one side, and, with a rapid step, a medical student in a white coat entered the Orloffs' dwelling, holding his cap in his hand. His head was smooth shaven, his forehead high and sunburnt; he had cheerful brown eyes, which smiled through his spectacles. "Good-morning!" he exclaimed, in his still youthful ringing alto voice. "I have the honour to introduce myself to you; I am a member of the Sanitary Commission. I have come to inquire about the state in which you live here, and just to report what sort of air you are breathing.... It's quite abominable air!"