But it was just here that strong impressions awaited them. Simeon
did not want to let them in, and only several gold pieces, which
Ryazanov gave him, softened him. They took up a cabinet, almost
the same as at Treppel's, only somewhat shabbier and more faded.
At the command of Emma Edwardovna, the girls were herded into the
cabinet. But it was the same as letting a goat into a truck-garden
or mixing soda and acid. The main mistake, however, was that they
let Jennka in there as well--wrathful, irritated, with impudent
fires in her eyes. The modest, quiet Tamara was the last to walk
in, with her shy and depraved smile of a Monna Lisa. In the end,
almost the entire personnel of the establishment gathered in the
cabinet. Rovinskaya no longer risked asking "How did you come to
this life?" But it must be said, that the inmates of the house met
her with an outward hospitality. Ellena Victorovna asked them to
sing their usual canonical songs, and they willingly sang:
Monday now is come again,
They're supposed to get me out;
Doctor Krassov won't let me out,
Well, the devil take him then.
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