But to attain the distant you must disturb yourself for the
immediate present----"
Nilovna tried to guess where this woman did her printing. The room
had three windows facing the street; there was a sofa and a bookcase,
a table, chairs, a bed at the wall, in the corner near it a wash
basin, in the other corner a stove; on the walls photographs and
pictures. All was new, solid, clean; and over all the austere
monastic figure of the mistress threw a cold shadow. Something
concealed, something hidden, made itself felt; but where it lurked
was incomprehensible. The mother looked at the doors; through one
of them she had entered from the little antechamber. Near the stove
was another door, narrow and high.
"I have come to you on business," she said in embarrassment,
noticing that the hostess was regarding her.
"I know. Nobody comes to me for any other reason."
Something strange seemed to be in Liudmila's voice. The mother
looked in her face. Liudmila smiled with the corners of her thin
lips, her dull eyes gleamed behind her glasses. Turning her glance
aside, the mother handed her the speech of Pavel.
"Here. They ask you to print it at once."
And she began to tell of Nikolay's preparations for the arrest.
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