ce? I have just been talking
to Anyuta Blagovo; she declares they would take you on the railway-line,
and even promised to try and get a post for you. For God's sake,
Misail, think a little! Think a little, I implore you."

We talked a little longer and I gave way. I said that the thought
of a job on the railway that was being constructed had never occurred
to me, and that if she liked I was ready to try it.

She smiled joyfully through her tears and squeezed my hand, and
then went on crying because she could not stop, while I went to the
kitchen for some kerosene.

II

Among the devoted supporters of amateur theatricals, concerts and
_tableaux vivants_ for charitable objects the Azhogins, who lived
in their own house in Great Dvoryansky Street, took a foremost
place; they always provided the room, and took upon themselves all
the troublesome arrangements and the expenses. They were a family
of wealthy landowners who had an estate of some nine thousand acres
in the district and a capital house, but they did not care for the
country, and lived winter and summer alike in the town. The family
consisted of the mother, a tall, spare, refined lady, with short
hair, a short jacket, and a flat-looking skirt in the English
fashion, and three daughters who, when they were spoken of, were
called not by their names but simply: the eldest, the middle, and
the youngest. They all had ugly sharp chins, and were short-sighted
and round-shouldered. They were dressed like their mother, they
lisped disagreeably, and yet, in spite of that, infallibly took
part in every performance and were continually doing something with
a charitable object--acting, reciting, singing. They were very
serious and never smiled, and even in a musical comedy they played
without the faintest trace of gaiety, with a businesslike air, as
though they were engaged in bookkeeping.

I loved our theatricals, especially the numerous, noisy, and rather
incoherent rehearsals, after which they always gave a supper. In
the choice of the plays and the distribution of the parts I had no
hand at all. The post assigned to me lay behind the scenes. I painted
the scenes, copied out the parts, prompted, made up the actors'
faces; and I was entrusted, too, with various stage effects such
as thunder, the singing of nightingales, and so on. Since I had no
proper social position and no decent clothes, at the rehearsals I
held aloof from the rest in the shadows of the wings and