ll her might; from
which the other went down on her knees, but got up right away, gasping
for breath and stammering from the sobs.

"Darlingest, don't beat me... Oh my dear, don't beat me..."

And again fell down, this time flat upon the floor.

And this systematic, malignant slaughter, in cold blood, continued for
some two minutes. Jennka, who had at first been looking on with her
customary malicious, disdainful air, suddenly could not stand it; she
began to squeal savagely, threw herself upon the housekeeper, clutched
her by the hair, tore off her chignon and began to vociferate in a real
hysterical fit:

"Fool! ... Murderer! ... Low-down go-between! ... Thief! ..."

All the three women vociferated together, and at once enraged wails
resounded through all the corridors and rooms of the establishment.
This was that general fit of grand hysterics, which takes possession of
those confined in prisons, or that elemental insanity (raptus), which
envelops unexpectedly and epidemically an entire lunatic asylum, from
which even experienced psychiatrists grow pale.

Only after the lapse of an hour was order restored by Simeon and two
comrades by profession who had come to his aid. All the thirteen girls
got it hot; but Jennka, who had gone into a real frenzy, more than the
others. The beaten-up Liubka kept on crawling before the housekeeper
until she was taken back. She knew that Jennka's outbreak would sooner
or later be reflected upon her in a cruel repayment. Jennka sat on her
bed until the very night, her legs crossed Turkish fashion; refused
dinner, and chased out all her mates who went in to her. Her eye was
bruised, and she assiduously applied a five-kopeck copper to it. From
underneath the torn shirt a long, transversal scratch reddened on the
neck, just like a mark from a rope. That was where Simeon had torn off
her skin in the struggle. She sat thus, alone, with eyes that glowed in
the dark like a wild beast's, with distended nostrils, with
spasmodically moving cheek-bones, and whispered wrathfully:

"Just you wait... Watch out, you damned things--I'll show you... You'll
see yet... Ooh-ooh, you man-eaters..."

But when the lights had been lit, and the junior housekeeper, Zociya,
knocked on her door with the words: "Miss, get dressed! ... Into the
drawing room!" she rapidly washed herself, dressed, put some powder on
the bruise, smeared the scratch over with CREME DE SIMON and pink
powder, and went out into th