Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume V).djvu/331

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SMOKE

distance was not twenty. He asked him, did he know the Shestov ladies?

'The Shestov ladies? To be sure! Kindhearted ladies, and no doubt about it! They doctor us too. It 's the truth I 'm telling you. Doctors they are! People go to them from all about. Yes, indeed. They fairly crawl to them. If any one, take an example, falls sick, or cuts himself or anything, he goes straight to them and they 'll give him a lotion directly, or powders, or a plaster, and it 'll be all right, it 'll do good. But one can't show one's gratitude, we won't consent to that, they say; it 's not for money. They 've set up a school too. . . . Not but what that 's a foolish business!'

While the driver talked, Litvinov never took his eyes off the house. . . . Out came a woman in white on to the balcony, stood a little, stood and then disappeared. . . . ' Wasn't it she?' His heart was fairly bounding within him. 'Quicker, quicker!' he shouted to the driver; the latter urged on the horses. A few instants more . . . and the carriage rolled in through the opened gates. . . . And on the steps Kapitolina Markovna was already standing, and beside herself with joy, was clapping her hands crying, 'I heard him, I knew him first! It 's he! it 's he! . . .I knew him!'

Litvinov jumped out of the carriage, with-

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