Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VI).djvu/53

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VIRGIN SOIL

and politely taking hold of the back of a chair, drew it towards himself, but did not sit down seeing that every one in the room was standing. He merely looked about him with his clear though half-closed eyes.

'Good-bye, Alexey Dmitritch', Mashurina brought out abruptly; 'I'll come in later.'

'And I,' added Ostrodumov, 'I too'll come . . . later on.'

Passing by the visitor as though intentionally slighting him, Mashurina took Nezhdanov's hand, shook it vigorously and walked out, without saluting any one. Ostrodumov followed her, making a quite unnecessary amount of noise with his boots, and even snorting more than once, as though to say: So much for you with your beaver collar!'

The visitor followed them both with a civil but rather inquisitive glance; then he bent it upon Paklin, as though expecting that he too would follow the example of the two retreating guests. But Paklin, whose face had worn a peculiar forced smile from the moment of the stranger's appearance, edged away, and shrank into a corner. Then the visitor sank into the chair. Nezhdanov also took a seat.

'My surname's Sipyagin,─you have heard it, perhaps,' the stranger began with proud modesty.

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