riches." ... You smile; but I tell you, a poor man like me has to take
everything into consideration.... If the coachman sits like a prince,
and doesn't touch his cap, and even sneers at you behind his beard, and
flicks his whip--then you may bet on six roubles. But this case, I saw,
had a very different air. However, I think there's no help for it; duty
before everything. I snatch up the most necessary drugs, and set off.
Will you believe it? I only just managed to get there at all. The road
was infernal: streams, snow, watercourses, and the dyke had suddenly
burst there--that was the worst of it! However, I arrived at last. It
was a little thatched house. There was a light in the windows; that
meant they expected me. I was met by an old lady, very venerable, in a
cap. "Save her!" she says; "she is dying." I say, "Pray don't distress
yourself--Where is the invalid?" "Come this way." I see a clean little
room, a lamp in the corner; on the bed a girl of twenty, unconscious.
She was in a burning heat, and breathing heavily--it was fever. There
were two other girls, her sisters, scared and in tears. "Yesterday,"
they tell me, "she was perfectly well and had a good appetite; this
morning she complained of her head, and this evening, suddenly, you
see, like this." I say again: "Pray don't be uneasy." It's a doctor's
duty, you know--and I went up to her and bled her, told them to put on
a mustard-plaster, and prescribed a mixture. Meantime I looked at her;
I looked at her, you know--there, by God! I had never seen such a
face!--she was a beauty, in a word! I felt quite shaken with pity. Such
lovely features; such eyes!... But, thank God! she became easier; she
fell into a perspiration, seemed to come to her senses, looked round,
smiled, and passed her hand over her face.... Her sisters bent over
her. They ask, "How are you?" "All right," she says, and turns away. I
looked at her; she had fallen asleep. "Well," I say, "now the patient
should be left alone." So we all went out on tiptoe; only a maid
remained, in case she was wanted. In the parlour there was a samovar