"
They say that dead people bring luck. If there is any foundation
at all in this superstition, then on this Saturday it could not
have told plainer: the influx of visitors was out of the ordinary,
even for a Saturday night. True, the girls, passing through the
corridor or past the room that had been Jennka's increased their
steps; timorously glanced at it sidelong, out of the corner of the
eye; while others even crossed themselves. But late in the night
the fear of death somehow subsided, grew bearable. All the rooms
were occupied, while in the drawing room a new violinist was
trilling without cease--a free-and-easy, clean-shaven young man,
whom the pianist with the cataract had searched out somewhere and
brought with him.
The appointment of Tamara as housekeeper was received with cold
perplexity, with taciturn dryness. But, having bided her time,
Tamara managed to whisper to Little White Manka:
"Listen, Manya! You tell them all that they shouldn't pay any
attention to the fact that I've been chosen housekeeper. It's got
to be so. But let them do as they wish, only don't let them trip
me up.
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