Page:Chernyshevsky.whatistobedone.djvu/472

452 applauded deafeningly, with shouts of "hurrah!" and "bravo!"

"What's got into you? What's got into you?" said Katerina Vasílyevna, in affright two or three minutes later.

"No, it's nothing much! it'll pass. Give me a glass of water! Don't bother yourself; Mosolof is bringing me some. Thank you, Mosolof!" She took the water brought her by her young companion who had been standing by the window. "Do you see how I have taught him? He knows everything beforehand. Now I feel all well again. Go ahead, please; I'm listening!"

"No, but I am tired," she said, five minutes later, calmly getting up from the divan. "I must have a nap for an hour or so. You see I am going without any ceremony. Come, Mosolof, let us find the dear little old man; he will give me a place."

"Excuse me, why shouldn't I do it?" asked Katerina Vasílyevna.

"Is it worth while to trouble you?"

"Are you going to give us up entirely?" asked one of the young men, taking a tragical pose. "If we had foreseen it, we should have brought daggers with us. But now we have nothing to stab ourselves with."

"When lunch is ready, we will take the forks for daggers!" shouted another, with the enthusiasm of unexpected salvation.

"Oh, no, I do not want the hope of our fatherland should be prematurely destroyed," said the lady in mourning, in the same excess of enthusiasm. "Be consoled, my children!—Mosolof, put the small cushion on the table."

Mosolof put the cushion on the table. The lady in mourning was standing by the table, in a graceful position, and slowly dropped her hand to the cushion.

The young folks kissed her hand.

Katerina Vasílyevna went to find a room for the weary guest.

"Poor girl!" said the three young men, who had been with her in the shop, with one accord, when she left the parlor.

"She is a brave woman!" said the three young men.