The Chorus Girl and Other Stories | Page 3

too. Shall I kill this low
woman or go down on my knees to her?"
The lady pressed her handkerchief to her face and broke into sobs.
"I beg you!" Pasha heard through the stranger's sobs. "You see you
have plundered and ruined my husband. Save him. . . . You have no
feeling for him, but the children . . . the children . . . What have the
children done?"
Pasha imagined little children standing in the street, crying with hunger,
and she, too, sobbed.
"What can I do, madam?" she said. "You say that I am a low woman
and that I have ruined Nikolay Petrovitch, and I assure you . . . before
God Almighty, I have had nothing from him whatever. . . . There is
only one girl in our chorus who has a rich admirer; all the rest of us live
from hand to mouth on bread and kvass. Nikolay Petrovitch is a highly
educated, refined gentleman, so I've made him welcome. We are bound
to make gentlemen welcome."

"I ask you for the things! Give me the things! I am crying. . . . I am
humiliating myself. . . . If you like I will go down on my knees! If you
wish it!"
Pasha shrieked with horror and waved her hands. She felt that this pale,
beautiful lady who expressed herself so grandly, as though she were on
the stage, really might go down on her knees to her, simply from pride,
from grandeur, to exalt herself and humiliate the chorus girl.
"Very well, I will give you things!" said Pasha, wiping her eyes and
bustling about. "By all means. Only they are not from Nikolay
Petrovitch. . . . I got these from other gentlemen. As you please. . . ."
Pasha pulled out the upper drawer of the chest, took out a diamond
brooch, a coral necklace, some rings and bracelets, and gave them all to
the lady.
"Take them if you like, only I've never had anything from your husband.
Take them and grow rich," Pasha went on, offended at the threat to go
down on her knees. "And if you are a lady . . . his lawful wife, you
should keep him to yourself. I should think so! I did not ask him to
come; he came of himself."
Through her tears the lady scrutinized the articles given her and said:
"This isn't everything. . . . There won't be five hundred roubles' worth
here."
Pasha impulsively flung out of the chest a gold watch, a cigar-case and
studs, and said, flinging up her hands:
"I've nothing else left. . . . You can search!"
The visitor gave a sigh, with trembling hands twisted the things up in
her handkerchief, and went out without uttering a word, without even
nodding her head.
The door from the next room opened and Kolpakov walked in. He was
pale and kept shaking his head nervously, as though he had swallowed
something very bitter; tears were glistening in his eyes.
"What presents did you make me?" Pasha asked, pouncing upon him.
"When did you, allow me to ask you?"
"Presents . . . that's no matter!" said Kolpakov, and he tossed his head.
"My God! She cried before you, she humbled herself. . . ."
"I am asking you, what presents did you make me?" Pasha cried.
"My God! She, a lady, so proud, so pure. . . . She was ready to go down
on her knees to . . . to this wench! And I've brought her to this! I've

allowed it!"
He clutched his head in his hands and moaned.
"No, I shall never forgive myself for this! I shall never forgive myself!
Get away from me . . . you low creature!" he cried with repulsion,
backing away from Pasha, and thrusting her off with trembling hands.
"She would have gone down on her knees, and . . . and to you! Oh, my
God!"
He rapidly dressed, and pushing Pasha aside contemptuously, made for
the door and went out.
Pasha lay down and began wailing aloud. She was already regretting
her things which she had given away so impulsively, and her feelings
were hurt. She remembered how three years ago a merchant had beaten
her for no sort of reason, and she wailed more loudly than ever.
VEROTCHKA
IVAN ALEXEYITCH OGNEV remembers how on that August
evening he opened the glass door with a rattle and went out on to the
verandah. He was wearing a light Inverness cape and a wide-brimmed
straw hat, the very one that was lying with his top-boots in the dust
under his bed. In one hand he had a big bundle of books and notebooks,
in the other a thick