Elena Kirillovna greets Glasha with her customary observation:
“Glasha, when am I to have my coffee? I ring and ring, and no one
comes. You, girl, seem to sleep like the dead.”
Glasha’s face assumes a look of astonishment and fear. Restraining a
yawn, she bends down to put a disarranged rug in order, and puts a pair
of soft, worn slippers closer to the bed. Then assuming an excessively
tender, deferential tone which old gentlewomen like in their servants,
she remarks:
“Forgive me, _barinya_,[2] it shan’t take a minute. But how early you
are awake to-day, _barinya_! Did you have a bad night?”
Elena Kirillovna replies:
“What sort of sleep can one except at my age! Get me my coffee a little
more quickly, and I will try to get up.”
She now speaks more calmly, despite the capricious note in her voice.
Glasha replies heartily:
“This very minute, _barinya_. You shall have it at once.”
And she turns about to go out.
Elena Kirillovna stops her with an angry exclamation:
“Glasha, where are you going? You seem to forget, no matter how often I
tell you! Draw the curtains aside.”
Glasha, with some agility, thrusts back the curtains of the two windows
and flies out of the room. She is rather low of stature and slender,
and one can tell from her face that she is intelligent, but the sound
of her rapid footsteps is measured and heavy, giving the impression
that the runner is large, powerful, heavy, and capable of doing
everything but what requires lightness. The mistress grumbles, looking
after her:
“Lord, how she stamps with her feet! She spares neither the floor nor
her own heels!”
[2] Means “gentlewoman,” and is a common form of salutation from
servant to mistress.