have been flattered with your confidence on more than one
occasion before now, a convincing proof of my trustworthiness. I
am an honest man, my dear Pemien."

Ostrodumov muttered something between his teeth, but Paklin
continued without the slightest trace of a smile on his face.

"No, I am not always laughing! I am not at all a cheerful person.
You have only to look at me!"

Ostrodumov looked at him. And really, when Paklin was not
laughing, when he was silent, his face assumed a dejected, almost
scared expression; it became funny and rather sarcastic only when
he opened his lips. Ostrodumov did not say anything, however, and
Paklin turned to Mashurina again.

"Well? And how are your studies getting on? Have you made any
progress in your truly philanthropical art? Is it very hard to
help an inexperienced citizen on his first appearance in this
world?

"It is not at all hard if he happens to be no bigger than you
are!" Mashurina retorted with a self-satisfied smile. (She had
quite recently passed her examination as a midwife. Coming from a
poor aristocratic family, she had left her home in the south of
Russia about two years before, and with about twelve shillings in
her pocket had arrived in Moscow, where she had entered a lying-
in institution and had worked very hard to gain the necessary
certificate. She was unmarried and very chaste. "No wonder!" some
sceptics may say ( bearing in mind the description of her personal