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Here he remembered Paklin's sister and could have bitten his tongue off. Fomishka went red in the face and muttered: "You see it is not my fault... she herself " Pufka simply flew at Markelov. "How dare you insult our masters?" she screamed out in her lisping voice. "What is it to you that they took me in, brought me up, and gave me meat and drink? Can't you bear to see another's good fortune, eh?
She had been given the unfortunate name of Snandulia, and to Paklin's request that she should be re-christened Sophia, she replied that it was just as it should be; a hunchback ought to be called Snandulia; so she stuck to her strange name. She was an excellent musician and played the piano very well. "Thanks to my long fingers," she would say, not without a touch of bitterness.
Paklin's true and rather apt comparison raised no smile on his listeners' faces, only Nejdanov remarked that if young people were fools enough to interest themselves in aesthetics, they deserved no pity whatever, even if Skoropikin did lead them astray.
Paklin's sister was a clever girl with a fairly attractive face. She had wonderfully beautiful eyes, but her unfortunate deformity had completely broken her spirit, deprived her of self-confidence, joyousness, made her mistrustful and even spiteful.
Then there are Paklin's ten roubles in addition, and I dare say I can get something from Merkulov " In the midst of these calculations the rhythmic cadences began to reassert themselves. He stood still, as if rooted to the spot, with fixed gaze. After a while his hands involuntarily found their way to the table drawer, from which he pulled out a much-used copy-book.
"Why not with you?" almost escaped Paklin's lips. "I should like to see him, because I have an important matter to talk over with him," he said aloud. "What about?" Ostrodumov asked. "Our affairs?" "Perhaps yours; that is, our common affairs." Ostrodumov hummed. He did not believe him. "Who knows? He's such a busy body," he thought. "There he is at last!"
He caught sight of Paklin's ten-rouble note, put it in his pocket, and began pacing up and down the room. "I must get some money in advance," he thought to himself. "What a good thing this gentleman suggested it. A hundred roubles... a hundred from my brothers their excellencies.... I want fifty to pay my debts, fifty or seventy for the journey and the rest Ostrodumov can have.
She could not fully smooth over her blunder, however. Having been touched on a sensitive spot, Nejdanov could not regain his former confidence. That bitterness which he always carried, always felt at the bottom of his heart, stirred again, awakening all his democratic suspicions and reproaches. "That is not what I've come here for," he thought, recalling Paklin's admonition.
At these words Markelov threw another glance at Paklin and gave a slow, indifferent smile. "Excuse me, excuse me, your excellency," Paklin cried, "and you, Mr. Sipiagin, I never... never " "Did you say the merchant Falyaeva?" the governor asked, turning to Sipiagin and merely shaking his fingers in Paklin's direction, as much as to say, "Gently, my good man, gently."
We should so gladly go together... Show us what we can do; tell us where to go... Send us anywhere you like! You will send us, won't you?" "Where to? "To the people.... Where can one go if not among the people?" "Into the forest," Nejdanov thought, calling to mind Paklin's words. Solomin looked intently at Mariana. "Do you want to know the people?"
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