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 CHAPTER XXXVI

THE VIEW ON TO THE MALACHITE POOL

T was Sunday evening. Everything was clean and tidy, even the mountain Mashuk, overgrown with bushes and trees, looked as if it had been carefully combed. Men wearing white trousers of every con­ ceivable material—cotton, leather, and flannel—were darting up and down the platforms of the railway station. There were men in sandals and shirts open at the throat, and Bender and Hippolyte, who had arrived in heavy, dirty boots, dusty trousers, hot waistcoats, and thick coats, felt quite out of place amongst these people. Young women were dressed in the most delicate sprig muslins, and the smartest of them all was the young station-mistress. The two friends were astonished to see a woman in such a position. Red curls pushed their way from under her red cap that had silver braid on the peak, and she was wearing a white uniform coat and skirt. After having admired the station-mistress, the two friends studied the bill that had been freshly posted advertising the Columbus Theatre company in Pyatigorsk. Then they each drank two glasses of Narzan water, and after that they jumped into a tram marked Station—Gardens. ’ It cost them ten copecks to go into the gardens. There was music there, a number of cheerful-looking people, and very few flowers. The symphonic orchestra was playing ‘ The Mosquito Dance ’. Narzan mineral water was being sold in the Lermontov Gallery. It was also being sold in kiosks, and people were carrying it about on trays. Narzan water seemed to be everywhere. No one took the slightest notice of the shabby diamond-seekers.

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