The spry Niurka would jump out
into the foyer, and, having informed herself as to who had come,
would report excitedly, after her wont:
"Jennka, your husband has come!"
Or:
"Little Manka, your lover has come!"
And Mishka the Singer, who was no singer at all, but the owner of
a drug warehouse, at once, upon entering, sang out in a vibrating,
quavering, goatish voice:
"They fe-e-e-l the tru-u-u-u-uth!
Come thou daw-aw-aw-aw-ning..."
which he perpetrated at every visit of his to Anna Markovna.
Almost incessantly they played the quadrille, waltz, polka, and
danced. There also arrived Senka--the lover of Tamara--but,
contrary to his wont, he did not put on airs, did not go in for
"ruination," did not order a funeral march from Isaiah Savvich,
and did not treat the girls to chocolate ... For some reason he
was gloomy, limped on his right leg, and sought to attract as
little attention as possible--probably his professional affairs
were at this time in a bad way. With a single motion of his head,
while walking, he called Tamara out of the drawing room and
vanished with her into her room.
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