'Did she read my note?'
'No doubt she did; the maid took it to her.'
'Unapproachable,' I thought, remembering Pasinkov's last words. 'All
right, you can go,' I said aloud.
Elisei smiled somewhat queerly and did not go.
'There's a girl ...' he began, 'here to see you.'
'What girl?'
Elisei hesitated.
'Didn't my master say anything to you?'
'No.... What is it?'
'When my master was in Novgorod,' he went on, fingering the door-post,
'he made acquaintance, so to say, with a girl. So here is this girl,
wants to see you. I met her the other day in the street. I said to her,
"Come along; if the master allows it, I'll let you see him."
'Ask her in, ask her in, of course. But ... what is she like?'
'An ordinary girl... working class... Russian.'
'Did Yakov Ivanitch care for her?'
'Well, yes ... he was fond of her. And she...when she heard my master
was dead, she was terribly upset. She's a good sort of girl.'
'Ask her in, ask her in.'
Elisei went out and at once came back. He was followed by a girl in a
striped cotton gown, with a dark kerchief on her head, that half hid
her face. On seeing me, she was much taken aback and turned away.
'What's the matter?' Elisei said to her; 'go on, don't be afraid.'