Lichonin repeated his order to her and gave her a rouble note. But
the old woman would not go away; shuffled in one place, snorted,
chewed with her lips and looked inimically at the girl sitting--
with her back to the light.
"What's the matter with you now, Alexandra, that you seem
ossified?" asked Lichonin, laughing. "Or are you lost in
admiration? Well, then, know: this is my cousin, my first cousin,
that is--Liubov..."[Footnote: Love.--Trans.] he was confused for
only a second, but immediately fired away: "Liubov Vasilievna, but
for me--simply Liubochka. I've known her when she was only that
high," he showed a quarter of a yard off the table. "And I pulled
her ears and slapped her for her caprices over the place where the
legs grow from. And then ... I caught all sorts of bugs for her
... But, however ... However, you go on, go on, you Egyptian
mummy, you fragment of former ages! Let one leg be here and the
other there!"
But the old woman lingered. Stamping all around herself, she
barely, barely turned to the door and kept a keen, spiteful,
sidelong glance on Liubka.
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