XXVII
Solomin ran out to the gates of the factory directly they hurried to tell him that a gentleman and lady had arrived in a little cart, and were asking for him. Without saying good-morning to his visitors, simply nodding his head several times to them, he at once told the peasant to drive into the yard, and, directing him straight up to his little lodge, he helped Marianna out of the cart. Nezhdanov leaped out after her. Solomin led them both along a little, long, dark passage, and up a narrow winding little staircase, in the back part of the lodge, to the second story. There he opened a low door, and they all three went into a small, fairly clean room with two windows.
'Welcome!' said Solomin, with his never-failing smile, which seemed broader and brighter than ever to-day.
'Here are your quarters, this room, and see here, another next to it. Not much to look at, but that's no matter; one can live in them,
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