Now I shall have to go indoors."

"I'm so awfully sorry!" stammered Tanaroff, in confusion.

Lida rose, gathered up her skirts, and ran indoors laughing, followed
by the glances of all the men. When she had gone they seemed to breathe
more freely, without that nervous sense of restraint which men usually
experience in the presence of a pretty young woman. Sarudine lighted a
cigarette which he smoked with evident gusto. One felt, when he spoke,
that he habitually took the lead in a conversation, and that what he
thought was something quite different from what he said.

"I have just been persuading Lidia Petrovna to study singing seriously.
With such a voice, her career is assured."

"A fine career, upon my word!" sullenly rejoined Novikoff, looking
aside.

"What is wrong with it?" asked Sarudine, in genuine amazement, removing
the cigarette from his lips.

"Why, what's an actress? Nothing else but a harlot!" replied Novikoff,
with sudden heat. Jealousy tortured him; the thought that the young
woman whose body he loved could appear before other men in an alluring
dress that would exhibit her charms in order to provoke their passions.

"Surely it is going too far to say that," replied Sarudine, raising his
eyebrows.

Novikoff's glance was full of hatred. He regarded Sarudine as one of