“But in any case you’ll have to give me her blank.”
“I will never do such a foolishness!
Come here with some respectable person and with the police; and let the police certify that this friend of yours is a man of means; and let this man stand surety for you; and let, besides that, the police certify that you are not taking the girl in order to trade in her, or to sell her over to another stablishment— then as you please!
Hand and foot!”
“The devil!” exclaimed Lichonin. “But if that surety will be I, I myself!
If I’ll sign your promissory notes right away … ”
“Young man!
I don’t know what you are taught in your different universities, but is it possible that you reckon me such a positive fool?
God grant, that you have, besides those which are on you, still some other pants!
God grant, that you should even the day after have for dinner the remnants of sausages from the sausage shop, and yet you say— a promissory note!
What are you bothering my head for?”
Lichonin grew completely angry.
He drew his wallet out of his pocket and slapped it down on the table.
“In that case I pay in cash and immediately!”
“Ach, that’s a business of another kind,” sweetly, but still with mistrust, the housekeeper intoned. “I will trouble you to turn the page, and see what the bill of your beloved is.”
“Keep still, you carrion!”
“I’m still, you fool,” calmly responded the housekeeper.
On the small ruled pages on the left side was designated the income, on the right were the expenses.
“Received in stamps, 15th of April,” read Lichonin, “10 roubles; 16th— 4 roubles; 17th— 12 roubles; 18th— sick; 19th— sick; 20th— 6 roubles; 21st— 24 roubles”
“My God!” with loathing, with horror, reflected Lichonin. “Twelve men in one night!”
At the end of the month stood:
“Total 330 roubles.”
“Lord!
Why, this is some sort of delirium!
One hundred and sixty-five visits,” thought Lichonin, having mechanically calculated it, and still continued turning the pages.
Then he went over to the columns on the right.
“Made, a red dress of silk with lace 84 roubles Dressmaker Eldokimova.
Dressing sack of lace 35 roubles Dressmaker Eldokimova.
Silk stockings 6 pair 36 roubles,” &c., &c.
“Given for cab-fare, given for candy, perfumes bought,” &c., &c.
“Total 205 roubles.”
After that from the 330 roubles were deducted 220 roubles— the share of the proprietress for board and lodging.
The figure of 110 roubles resulted.
The end of the monthly account declared:
“Total after the payment to the dressmaker and for other articles, of 110 roubles, a debt of ninety-five (95) roubles remains for Irene Voschhenkova and with the four hundred and eighteen roubles remaining from last year— five hundred and thirteen (513) roubles.”
Lichonin’s spirits fell.
He did try, at first, to be indignant at the expensiveness of the materials supplied; but the housekeeper retorted with sang froid that that did not concern her at all; that the establishment demanded only that the girl dress decently, as becomes a girl from a decent, genteel house; while it did not concern itself with the rest.
The establishment merely extended her credit in paying her expenses.
“But this is a vixen, a spider in human shape— this dressmaker of yours!” yelled Lichonin beside himself. “Why, she’s in a conspiracy with you, cupping glass that you are, you abominable tortoise!
Scuttlefish!
Where’s your conscience?”
The more agitated he grew, the more calm and jeering Emma Edwardovna became.
“Again I repeat: that is not my business.
And you, young man, don’t express yourself like that, because I will call the porter, and he will throw you out of the door.”
Lichonin was compelled to bargain with the cruel woman long, brutally, till he grew hoarse, before she agreed, in the end, to take two hundred and fifty roubles in cash, and two hundred roubles in promissory notes.
And even that only when Lichonin with his half-yearly certificate proved to her that he was finishing this year and would become a lawyer.
The housekeeper went after the ticket, while Lichonin took to pacing the cabinet back and forth.
He had already looked over all the pictures on the walls: Leda with the swan, and the bathing on the shore of the sea, and the odalisque in a harem, and the satyr, bearing a naked nymph in his arms; but suddenly a small printed placard, framed and behind glass, half covered by a portiere, attracted his attention.
It was the first time that it had come across Lichonin’s eyes, and the student with amazement and aversion read these lines, expressed in the dead, official language of police stations.
There with shameful, businesslike coldness, were mentioned all possible measures and precautions against infections; the intimacies of feminine toilet; the weekly medical inspections and all the adaptations for them.