“No,” she responded dully, after a long silence, “no, this won’t work out with me: fate has chewed me all up! ... I’m not a human being any more, but some sort of dirty cud ... Eh!” she suddenly made a gesture of despair. ‘Let’s better drink some cognac, Jennechka,’” she addressed herself, “‘and let’s suck the lemon a little! ...’ Brr ... what nasty stuff! ... And where does Annushka always get such abominable stuff? If you smear a dog’s wool with it, it will fall off ... And always, the low-down thing, she’ll take an extra half. Once I somehow ask her—‘What are you hoarding money for?’ ‘Well, I,’ she says, ‘am saving it up for a wedding. What sort,’ she says, ‘of joy will it be for my husband, that I’ll offer him up my innocence alone! I must earn a few hundreds in addition.’ She’s happy! ... I have here, Tamara, a little money in the little box under the mirror; you pass it on to her, please...” “And what are you about, you fool; do you want to die, or what?” sharply, with reproach, said Tamara. “No, I’m saying it just so, if anything happens ... Take it, now, take the money! Maybe they’ll take me off to the hospital ... And how do you know what’s going to take place there? I left myself some small change, if anything happens ... And supposing that I wanted to do something to myself in downright earnest, Tamarochka—is it possible that you’d interfere with me?” Tamara looked at her fixedly, deeply, and calmly. Jennie’s eyes were sad, and as though vacant. The living fire had become extinguished in them, and they seemed turbid, just as though faded, with whites like moonstone. “No,” Tamara said at last, quietly but firmly. “If it was on account of love, I’d interfere; if it was on account of money, I’d talk you out of it: but there are cases where one must not interfere. I wouldn’t help, of course; but I also wouldn’t seize you and interfere with you.” At this moment the quick-limbed housekeeper Zociya whirled through the corridor with an outcry: “Ladies, get dressed! The doctor has arrived ... Ladies, get dressed! ... Lively, ladies! ...” “Well, go on, Tamara, go on,” said Jennka tenderly, getting up. “I’ll run into my room for just a minute—I haven’t changed my dress yet, although, to tell the truth, this also is all one. When they’ll be calling out for me, and I don’t come in time, call out, run in after me.” And, going out of Tamara’s room, she embraced her by the shoulder, as though by chance, and stroked it tenderly.