desired, and that which, apparently, might have raised them. Three
of their number were particularly well known to me. All three, after
repeated rises and falls, are now in precisely the same situation in
which they were three years ago.



CHAPTER VIII.



The second class of unfortunates whom I also expected to assist later
on, were the dissolute women; there were a very great many of them,
of all sorts, in the Rzhanoff house--from those who were young and
who resembled women, to old ones, who were frightful and horrible,
and who had lost every semblance of humanity. The hope of being of
assistance to these women, which I had not at first entertained,
occurred to me later. This was in the middle of our rounds. We had
already worked out several mechanical tricks of procedure.

When we entered a new establishment, we immediately questioned the
landlady of the apartment; one of us sat down, clearing some sort of
a place for himself where he could write, and another penetrated the
corners, and questioned each man in all the nooks of the apartment
separately, and reported the facts to the one who did the writing.

On entering a set of rooms in the basement, a student went to hunt up
the landlady, while I began to interrogate all who remained in the
place. The apartment was thus arranged: in the centre was a room
six arshins square, {7} and a small oven. From the oven radiated