Only Liubka alone could not
master this trade. At every mistake or tangle she was forced to
turn to the co-operation of the men. But then, she learned pretty
rapidly to make artificial flowers and, despite the opinion of
Simanovsky, made them very exquisitely, and with great taste; so
that after a month the hat specialty stores began to buy her work.
And, what is most amazing, she had taken only two lessons in all
from a specialist, while the rest she learned through a self-
instructor, guiding herself only by the drawings supplemental to
it. She did not contrive to make more than a rouble's worth of
flowers in a week; but this money was her pride, and for the very
first half-rouble that she made she bought Lichonin a mouthpiece
for smoking.
Several years later Lichonin confessed to himself at soul, with
regret and with a quiet melancholy, that this period of time was
the most quiet, peaceful and comfortable one of all his life in
the university and as a lawyer. This unwieldy, clumsy, perhaps
even stupid Liubka, possessed some instinctive domesticity, some
imperceptible ability of creating a bright and easy quietude
around her.
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