"They've been searching every one, miss. They've searched all my
things, too. They stripped us all naked and searched us. . . . God
knows, miss, I never went near her toilet-table, let alone touching
the brooch. I shall say the same at the police-station."

"But . . . why have they been rummaging here?" the governess still
wondered.

"A brooch has been stolen, I tell you. The mistress has been rummaging
in everything with her own hands. She even searched Mihailo, the
porter, herself. It's a perfect disgrace! Nikolay Sergeitch simply
looks on and cackles like a hen. But you've no need to tremble like
that, miss. They found nothing here. You've nothing to be afraid
of if you didn't take the brooch."

"But, Liza, it's vile . . . it's insulting," said Mashenka, breathless
with indignation. "It's so mean, so low! What right had she to
suspect me and to rummage in my things?"

"You are living with strangers, miss," sighed Liza. "Though you are
a young lady, still you are . . . as it were . . . a servant. . . .
It's not like living with your papa and mamma."

Mashenka threw herself on the bed and sobbed bitterly. Never in her
life had she been subjected to such an outrage, never had she been
so deeply insulted. . . . She, well-educated, refined, the daughter
of a teacher, was suspected of theft; she had been searched like a
street-walker! She could not imagine a greater insult. And to this
feeling of resentment was added an oppressive dread of what would