common oleographs
in heavy frames. The bad taste of the general effect was the more
complete from the lack of finish and the overcrowding of the room,
which gave one a feeling that something was lacking, and that a
great deal should have been thrown away. It was evident that the
furniture had not been bought all at once, but had been picked up
at auctions and other favourable opportunities.

Heaven knows what taste the lieutenant could boast of, but even he
noticed one characteristic peculiarity about the whole place, which
no luxury or style could efface--a complete absence of all trace
of womanly, careful hands, which, as we all know, give a warmth,
poetry, and snugness to the furnishing of a room. There was a
chilliness about it such as one finds in waiting-rooms at stations,
in clubs, and foyers at the theatres.

There was scarcely anything in the room definitely Jewish, except,
perhaps, a big picture of the meeting of Jacob and Esau. The
lieutenant looked round about him, and, shrugging his shoulders,
thought of his strange, new acquaintance, of her free-and-easy
manners, and her way of talking. But then the door opened, and in
the doorway appeared the lady herself, in a long black dress, so
slim and tightly laced that her figure looked as though it had been
turned in a lathe. Now the lieutenant saw not only the nose and
eyes, but also a thin white face, a head black and as curly as
lamb's-wool. She did not attract him, though she did not strike him
as ugly. He had a prejudice against un-Russian faces in general,
and he considered, too, that the lady's white face, the whiteness
of which for some reason suggested the cloying scent of jasmine,
did not go well with her little black curls and thick eyebrows;
that her nose and ears were astoundingly white, as though they
belonged to a corpse, or had been moulded out of transparent wax.
When she smiled she showed pale gums as well as her teeth, and he
did not like that either.

"Anaemic debility . . ." he thought; "she's probably as nervous as
a turkey."

"Here I am! Come along!" she said, going on rapidly ahead of him
and pulling off the yellow leaves from the plants as she passed.

"I'll give you the money directly, and if you like I'll give you
some lunch. Two thousand three hundred roubles! After such a good
stroke of business you'll have an appetite for your lunch. Do you
like my rooms? The ladies about here declare that my rooms always
smell of garlic. Wit