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Her eyes seemed to say: "What is that to you, since you are not going to marry her?" "I don't know. Probably in her room," she coldly replied. Volochine shot another glance at his companion. "Can't you manage to make Lida come down quickly?" it said. "This old woman's becoming a bore." Sarudine opened his mouth and feebly twisted his moustache.
Maria Ivanovna looked pale and shrunken, Volochine's eyes expressed animal fear, and Sarudine slowly and irresolutely rose. "What do you mean?" he asked in a hoarse voice. Volochine tittered, and looked about nervously for his hat. Sanine did not reply to the question, but maliciously handed Volochine the hat. From the latter's open mouth a stifled sound escaped like a plaintive squeak.
After a while it will all blow over. And it's not the first time, either!" Thus he sought to soothe his conscience, but an inward voice refused to accept such consolation. Volochine entered gingerly, his boots creaking loudly, and his discoloured teeth revealed by a condescending smile.
Filled with shame and grief and revenge, her burning eyes were set on her seducer, and seemed to pierce him through and through. Volochine again began to babble, while Lida interrupted him with laughter that concealed her tears. "I think that we ought to be going," said Sarudine, at last, who felt that the situation was becoming intolerable.
"I have heard so many flattering things about your daughter," began Volochine, smiling, and rubbing his hands, as he bent forward to Maria Ivanovna, "that I hope to have the honour of being introduced to her." Maria Ivanovna wondered what this insolent little roue could have heard about her own pure Lida, her darling child, and again she had a terrible presentiment of the latter's downfall.
Sarudine thought of Lida's beauty, and he shrank from discussing it with Volochine. However, after a pause, he observed with much affectation: "Every one to his taste. What I like most in a woman; is the back; that sinuous line, don't you know...." "Yes," drawled Volochine nervously. "Some women, especially very young ones, have got ..."
"Aha! That's it, is it?" he muttered, breathing hard. "Get out!" said Sanine contemptuously, yet in so terrible a tone that Sarudine glared, and voluntarily drew back. "I don't know what the deuce it all means!" said Volochine, under his breath, as with shoulders raised he hurried to the door. But there, in the door-way, stood Lida. She was dressed in a style quite different from her usual one.
"Yes, you're right," said Sarudine, growing interested in his turn, as he twirled his moustache complacently. "Take off her corset, and the smartest Petersburg woman becomes Oh! by the way, have you heard the latest?" said Volochine, interrupting himself. "No, I dare say not," replied Sarudine, leaning forward, eagerly.
And the women in big towns! If you could only see what they were like! Do you know, I feel convinced that if the world is ever saved it will be by beauty." This last phrase Volochine unexpectedly added, believing it to be most apt and illuminating. The expression of his face was one of stupidity and greed, as he kept reverting to his pet theme, Woman.
Volochine, losing his pince-nez as he Stumbled over a bush, ran away as fast as he could across the damp grass, so that his spotless trousers instantly became black up to the knees. Tanaroff ground his teeth with fury, and also dashed forward, but Ivanoff caught him by the shoulders and pulled him back. "That's all right!" said Sanine scornfully. "Let him come."
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