Yama [The Pit], a Novel in Three PartsKuprin, A. I. (Aleksandr Ivanovich)
General
Yama [The Pit], a Novel in Three Parts
Kuprin, A. I. (Aleksandr Ivanovich)
Prostitutes -- Russia -- Fiction; Russia -- Fiction; Russian fiction -- Translations into English
No! And even if he did experience this, then it must have been in the
very beginning of his career. Now before him were only naked abdomens,
naked backs, and opened mouths. Not one exemplar of all this faceless
herd of every Saturday would he have recognized subsequently on the
street. The main thing was the necessity of finishing as soon as
possible the inspection in one establishment, in order to pass on to
another, to a third, a ninth, a twentieth...
“Susannah Raitzina!” the doctor finally called out.
No one walked up to the table.
All the inmates of the house began to exchange glances and to whisper.
“Jennka ... Where’s Jennka? ...”
But she was not among the girls.
Then Tamara, just released by the doctor, moved a little forward and
said:
“She isn’t here. She hasn’t had a chance to get herself ready yet.
Excuse me, Mr. Doctor, I’ll go right away and call her.”
She ran into the corridor and did not return for a long time. After her
went, at first Emma Edwardovna, then Zociya, several girls, and even
Anna Markovna herself.
“PFUI! What indecency is this! ...” the majestic Emma Edwardovna was
saying in the corridor, making an indignant face. “And eternally this
Jennka! ... Always this Jennka! ... It seems my patience has already
burst ...”
But Jennka was nowhere—neither in her room, nor in Tamara’s. They
looked into other chambers, in all the out-of-the-way corners ... But
she did not prove to be even there.
“We must look in the water-closet ... Perhaps she’s there?” surmised
Zoe.
But this institution was locked from the inside with a bolt. Emma
Edwardovna knocked on the door with her fist.
“Jennie, do come out at last! What foolishness is this?”
And, raising her voice, she cried out impatiently and threateningly:
“Do you hear, you swine? ... Come out this minute—the doctor’s
waiting!”
But there was no answer of any sort.
All exchanged glances with fear in their eyes, with one and the same
thought in mind.
Emma Edwardovna shook the door by the brass knob, but the door did not
yield.
“Go after Simeon!” Anna Markovna directed.
Simeon was called ... He came, sleepy and morose, as was his wont. By
the distracted faces of the girls and the housekeepers, he already saw
that some misunderstanding or other had occurred, in which his
professional cruelty and strength were required. When they explained to
him what the matter was, he silently took the door-knob with both
hands, braced himself against the wall, and gave a yank.
The knob remained in his hands; and he himself, staggering backward,
almost fell to the floor on his back.
“A-a, hell!” he began to growl in a stifled voice. “Give me a table
knife.”
Through the crack of the door he felt the inner bolt with the table
knife; whittled away with the blade the edges of the crack, and widened
it so that he could at last push the end of the knife through it, and
began gradually to scrape back the bolt. Only the grating of metal
against metal could be heard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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