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She had not slept well the two nights before and had risen late that morning. Her husband had left long before for the Military Hospital. She was sitting beside her open trunk taking her things out very carefully. "How do you do, Mrs. Shaldin? Welcome back to Chmyrsk. I congratulate you on your happy arrival." "Oh, how do you do, Abramka?" said Mrs.
You see I am very busy. Still you may tell her I am coming right away. I just want to finish ironing Mrs. Konopotkin's dress." Abramka simply wanted to keep up appearances, as always when he was sent for. But his joy at the summons to Mrs. Shaldin was so great that to the astonishment of his helpers and Shuchok he left immediately. He found Mrs. Shaldin alone.
Shaldin's triumph was complete. The two ladies gave each other the same friendly smiles as always, but one of them was experiencing the fine disdain and the derision of the conqueror, while the other was burning inside with the furious resentment of a dethroned goddess goddess of the annual ball. From that time on Abramka cautiously avoided passing the captain's house.
Abramka seated himself. He felt much more at ease in Mrs. Shaldin's home than in Mrs. Zarubkin's. Mrs. Shaldin did not order her clothes from Moscow. She was a steady customer of his.
"Oh, things can happen. But, all right, never mind. I brought a dress along with me. I had to have it made in a great hurry, and there is just a little more to be done on it. Now if I give you this dress to finish, can I be sure that you positively won't tell another soul how it is made?" "Mrs. Shaldin, oh, Mrs. Shaldin," said Abramka reproachfully.
Abramka reflected a moment, then said: "I assure you, Mrs. Zarubkin, you need not be a bit uneasy. I will make a dress for you that will be just as grand as the one from abroad. I assure you, your dress will be the most elegant one at the ball, just as it always has been. I tell you, my name won't be Abramka Stiftik if " His eager asseverations seemed not quite to satisfy the captain's wife.
"Always the same people, the same old humdrum jog-trot." "I suppose the ladies have been besieging our poor Abramka?" "I really can't tell you. So far as I am concerned, I have scarcely looked at what he made for me." "Hm, how's that? Didn't you order your dress from Moscow again?" "No, it really does not pay. I am sick of the bother of it all. Why all that trouble? For whom?
"I don't know what you are speaking of, Mrs. Zarubkin," Abramka rejoined. He assumed a somewhat injured manner. "Have you ever heard of Abramka ever babbling anything out? You certainly know that in my profession you know everybody has some secret to be kept." "Oh, you must have misunderstood me, Abramka. What sort of secrets do you mean?"
"Well, yes." "And certainly will bring a dress back with her." "Certainly!" "A dress from abroad, something we have never seen here something highly original." "Mrs. Zarubkin!" Abramka cried, as if a truth of tremendous import had been revealed to him. "Mrs. Zarubkin, I understand. Why certainly! Yes, but that will be pretty hard." "That's just it."
None of the ladies of the regiment ordered as much from him as Mrs. Shaldin. Her grandmother would send her material from Kiev or the doctor would go on a professional trip to Chernigov and always bring some goods back with him; or sometimes her aunt in Voronesh would make her a gift of some silk. "Abramka is always ready to serve Mrs.
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