And approximately these persons
he was inwardly picturing to himself.
"May I be permitted, gentlemen, to intrude into your intimate
company?" he asked in an unctuous, kindly voice, with a half-bow
done somewhat to one side.
They asked him in, and he began to introduce himself. Shaking
hands, he stuck out his elbow forward and raised it so high that
the hand proved to be far lower. Now it was no longer a bank
director, but such a clever, splendid fellow, a sportsman and a
rake of the golden youths. But his face--with rumpled, wild
eyebrows and with denuded lids without lashes--was the vulgar,
harsh and low face of a typical alcoholic, libertine, and pettily
cruel man. Together with him came two of his ladies: Henrietta
the eldest girl in years in the establishment of Anna Markovna,
experienced, who had seen everything and had grown accustomed to
everything, like an old horse on the tether of a threshing
machine, the possessor of a thick bass, but still a handsome
woman; and Big Manka, or Manka the Crocodile. Henrietta since
still the preceding night had not parted from the actor, who had
taken her from the house to a hotel.
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