Pavlovna. It did not occur to me that perhaps Aleksandr Matvéitch might not care to go with us."
"No, on the contrary, it is very interesting to me; I have been wanting, for a long time, to go there. Your thought is a happy one."
In point of fact, Viéra Pavlovna's suggestion turned out propitiously. The girls were really delighted that Lopukhóf paid them the first visit after his sickness. Kirsánof was greatly interested in the shop; and a man of his turn of thought could not help being interested. If a special cause had not prevented him, he would have been from the very first one of the most enthusiastic instructors in it. Half an hour, or maybe even an hour, in the shop passed before they knew it. Viéra Pavlovna led him through the different rooms, and showed him everything. While they were returning from the dining-hall into the working-rooms, a girl, who had not been in the working-rooms, came up to Viéra Pavlovna. The girl and Kirsánof looked at each other.
"Nástenka!"
"Sasha!"[1] and they embraced each other.
"Sáshenka, my dear, how glad I am to see you!" The girl kept on kissing him, and laughed and cried at once. Coming to her senses from joy, she said: "No, Viéra Pavlovna, I am not going to speak about business now; I cannot part from him. Come, Sáshenka, let us go to my room."
Kirsánof was no less glad than she. But Viéra Pavlovna noticed an expression of deep grief in his eyes, after he recognized her. And this was not to be wondered at; the girl was in the last stages of consumption.
Nástenka had entered the union about a year before, and even then was very ill. If she had remained in the shop where she had been working till that time, she would have died. But in the union there was a chance for her to live somewhat longer. The girls entirely relieved her from sewing. It was easy for them to give her other work that was not harmful for her to do. She looked after the little interests of the shop; she took charge of the closets; she received orders; and no one could say that Nástenka was less useful that any one else in the shop.
The Lopukhófs went away, without waiting for Kirsánof to finish his interview with Nástenka.
- ↑ Diminutives of Aleksandr, as Nástenka is of Nastasia. The girl's name was Nastasia Borisovna Kriukova.
