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DIAMONDS TO SIT ON

Hippolyte was irritated by aU these leeches. He ran up the steps of his house, scraped the mud off his boots, and went into the hall feeling ravenous. Father Theodore, the priest, came out into the hall and without seeing Hippolyte went rapidly down the steps into the street. Hippolyte noticed that the place looked extra clean, some of the furniture had been moved round, and he smelt a strong smell of medicine. He found Madam Kuznetsov, one of their neighbours, in the sitting-room. She whispered to him : ‘ Sh ! She’s worse. She’s just been confessing. Don’t make such a noise with your boots.’ ' I’m not making a noise,’ said Hippolyte, ‘ but what on earth has happened ? ’ Madam Kuznetsov screwed up her lips and pointed to the bedroom door. ‘ A dreadful heart attack.’ And, obviously repeating some one else’s words which sounded important, she added : ‘ The possibility of a fatal issue is not excluded. I have been on my feet all day long. I came here this morning to borrow the mincer. I see the door open, no one in the kitchen, no one in here either. So I say to myself, “ Madam Petukhov has probably gone out to buy some flour for her cakes. She said she wanted some the other day.” Of course, you know what it is hke with flour nowadays. If you don’t buy it well in advance then- ’ Madam Kuznetsov would have gone on talking for hours about flour and the prices of things, about how she found Madam Petukhov lying unconscious by the stove and all sorts of other details, but a groan from the next room cut her short. Hippolyte crossed him­ self furtively and crept into his mother-in-law’s room.