And at the same time she muttered with
her sunken mouth:
"First cousin! We know these first cousins! There's lots of them
walking around Kashtanovaya Street. There, these he-dogs can never
get enough!"
"Well, you old barque! Lively and don't growl!" Lichonin shouted
after her. "Or else, like your friend, the student Triassov, I'll
take and lock you up in the dressing room for twenty-four hours!"
Alexandra went away, and for a long time her aged, flapping steps
and indistinct muttering could be heard in the corridor. She was
inclined, in her austere, grumbling kindliness, to forgive a great
deal to the studying youths, whom she had served for nigh unto
forty years. She forgave drunkenness, card playing, scandals, loud
singing, debts; but, alas! she was a virgin, and there was only
one thing her continent soul could not abide--libertinage.
CHAPTER XIII.
"And that's splendid ... And fine and charming," Lichonin was
saying, bustling about the lame table and without need shifting
the tea things from one place to another. "For a long time, like
an old crocodile, I haven't drunk tea as it should be drunk, in a
Christian manner, in a domestic setting.
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