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RUDIN tied up in a checked handkerchief. Covered to the very throat with a heavy overcoat she was breathing with difficulty, and her wasted hands were twitching.

Alexandra Pavlovna went close up to the old woman and laid her fingers on her forehead; it was burning hot.

‘How do you feel, Matrona?’ she inquired, bending over the bed.

‘Oh, oh!’ groaned the old woman, trying to make her out, ‘bad, very bad, my dear! My last hour has come, my darling!’

‘God is merciful, Matrona; perhaps you will be better soon. Did you take the medicine I sent you?’

The old woman groaned painfully, and did not answer. She had hardly heard the question.

‘She has taken it,’ said the old man who was standing at the door.

Alexandra Pavlovna turned to him.

‘Is there no one with her but you?’ she inquired.

‘There is the girl—her granddaughter, but she always keeps away. She won’t sit with her; she’s such a gad-about. To give the old 3