.."
"Elsa."
"They say, that you're treated very roughly ... beaten at times
... compelled to do that which you don't want to and which is
repulsive to you?"
"Never, madam!" dropped Elsa haughtily. "We all live here as a
friendly family of our own. We are all natives of the same land or
relatives, and God grant that many should live so in their own
families as we live here. True, on Yamskaya Street there happen
various scandals and fights and misunderstandings. But that's
there ... in these ... in the rouble establishments. The Russian
girls drink a lot and always have one lover. And they do not think
at all of their future."
"You are prudent, Elsa," said Rovinskaya in an oppressed tone.
"All this is well. But, what of the chance disease? Infection?
Why, that is death? And how can you guess?"
"And again--no, madam. I won't let a man into my bed before I make
a detailed medical inspection of him ... I am guaranteed, at the
least, against seventy-five per cent."
"The devil!" suddenly exclaimed Rovinskaya with heat and hit the
table with her fist.
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