“Why, nothing. There was no evidence of any kind. There had been a free-for-all mix-up. About a hundred people were fighting. She also told the police that she had no suspicions of any sort. But Prokhor himself boasted afterwards: ‘I,’ says he, ‘didn’t do for Dunka that time, but I’ll finish her off another time. She,’ says he, ‘won’t get by my hands. I’m going to give her the works.’” A shiver runs all the way down Liuba’s back. “They’re desperate fellows, these pimps!” she pronounces quietly, with horror in her voice. “Something terrible! I, you know, played at love with our Simeon for a whole year. Such a Herod, the skunk! I didn’t have a whole spot on me. I always went about in black and blue marks. And it wasn’t for any reason at all, but just simply so—he’d go in the morning into a room with me, lock himself in, and start in to torture me. He’d wrench my arms, pinch my breasts, grab my throat and begin to strangle me. Or else he’d be kissing, kissing, and then he’d bite the lips so that the blood would just spurt out ... I’d start crying—but that’s all he was looking for. Then he’d just pounce an me like a beast—simply shivering all over. And he’d take all my money away—well, now, to the very last little copper. There wasn’t anything to buy ten cigarettes with. He’s stingy, this here Simeon, that’s what, always into the bank-book with it, always putting it away into the bank-book... Says when he gets a thousand roubles together—he’ll go into a monastery.” “Go on!” “Honest to God. You look into his little room: the twenty-four hours round, day and night, the little holy lamp burns before the images. He’s very strong for God ... Only I think that he’s that way because there’s heavy sins upon him. He’s a murderer.” “What are you saying?” “Oh, let’s drop talking about him, Liubochka. Well, let’s go on further: “I’ll go to the drug store, buy me some poison, And I will poison then meself.” Niura starts off in a very high, thin voice. Jennie walks back and forth in the room, with arms akimbo, swaying as she walks, and looking at herself in all the mirrors. She has on a short orange satin dress, with straight deep pleats in the skirt, which vacillates evenly to the left and right from the movement of her hips. Little Manka, a passionate lover of card games, ready to play from morning to morning, without stopping, is playing away at “sixty-six” with Pasha, during which both women, for convenience in dealing, have left an empty chair between them, while they gather their tricks into their skirts, spread out between their knees. Manka has on a brown, very modest dress, with black apron and pleated black bib; this dress is very becoming to her dainty, fair little head and small stature; it makes her younger and gives her the appearance of a high-school undergraduate.