"The doctor's wife surprised us, devil take her! She was pretty too, and used to speak quite kindly to me before, but now of course, there was a scene. Vyerka was turned out of doors and I with her, and they blackguarded us both horribly, my word! Vyerka stayed with me. I hadn't any work and we starved and sold everything to the last thread. But Vyerka is a girl of spirit. She went off--was away a fortnight and came back dressed like a swell lady--bracelets, money in her pocket." Pashka ground his teeth and said gloomily: "I thrashed her, I tell you." "Did she run away?" asked Ilya. "N--No! If she'd left me I'd have thrown myself in the river. 'Kill me if you like,' she said 'but let me alone! I know I'm a burden to you. No one shall have my soul,' she said." "And what did you do?" "Do? I struck her once more, then I cried. What could I do; I can't find food for her." "Why didn't she find a new place?" "The devil knows. She said, 'it would be better this way.' If children came, what could we do with them, and so----" Ilya thought for a little, then said: "A sensible girl." Pashka went on a step or two in silence. Then he wheeled sharp round, stood in front of Ilya, and said in a dull hissing voice: "When I think that other men kiss her, then it's like molten lead driving through my limbs." "Why don't you let her go?" "Let her go?" cried Pavel in the highest astonishment. Ilya understood afterwards when he saw the girl. They came to a one-storied house on the outskirts of the town. Its six windows were fast shut with thick shutters so that the house had the look of an old straggling granary. The wet, sloppy snow clung to roof and walls, as though it would conceal or smother the house. Pashka knocked at the door and said: "This is where they're looked after. Sidorisha gives her girls board and lodging and takes fifty roubles from each of them for it; she has only four altogether. Of course she keeps wine too, and beer, and sweetmeats, and all that you want, for the rest she lets the girls do what they want to, go out if they like, or stop at home if they like, only pay the fifty every month. They are all jolly girls; they make money as easily as----One of them, Olympiada, never takes less than four roubles." There was a rustling the other side of the door. A yellow streak of light quivered in the air. "Who is there?" "I, Vassa Sidorovna--Gratschev." "Oh! The door opened and a little dried-up old woman, with a big nose in her shrivelled face, held the candle up to Pavel's face, and said in a friendly way: "Good evening, Pashka. Vyerunka has been waiting for you for a long time, and is quite cross. Who's that with you?" "A friend." "Who is it?" came a pleasant voice out of a long, dark corridor. "A visitor for Vyera," said the old woman.