And there also came and went government clerks of some sort; crisp
young people in patent leather boots; several students; several
officers, who were horribly afraid of losing their dignity in the
eyes of the proprietress and the guests of the brothel. Little by
little in the drawing room was created such a noisy, fumy setting
that no one there any longer felt ill at ease. There came a steady
visitor, the lover of Sonka the Rudder, who came almost every day
and sat whole hours through near his beloved, gazed upon her with
languishing oriental eyes, sighed, grew faint and created scenes
for her because she lives in a brothel, because she sins against
the Sabbath, because she eats meat not prepared in the orthodox
Hebrew manner, and because she has strayed from the family and the
great Hebrew church.
As a usual thing--and this happened often--Zociya the housekeeper
would walk up to him under cover of the hubbub and would say,
twisting her lips:
"Well, what are you sitting there for mister? Warming your behind?
You might go and pass the time with the young lady.
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