“Get in, my dear.” Varvara Petrovna motioned Mlle. Lebyadkin towards the carriage which had driven up.
The “unhappy creature” hurried gleefully to the carriage door, and there the footman lifted her in.
“What! You’re lame!” cried Varvara Petrovna, seeming quite alarmed, and she turned pale. (Every one noticed it at the time, but did not understand it.)
The carriage rolled away. Varvara Petrovna’s house was very near the cathedral. Liza told me afterwards that Miss Lebyadkin laughed hysterically for the three minutes that the drive lasted, while Varvara Petrovna sat “as though in a mesmeric sleep.” Liza’s own expression.
CHAPTER V. THE SUBTLE SERPENT
I
VARVARA PETROVNA rang the bell and threw herself into an easy chair by the window.
“Sit here, my dear.” She motioned Marya Timofyevna to a seat in the middle of the room, by a large round table. “Stepan Trofimovitch, what is the meaning of this? See, see, look at this woman, what is the meaning of it?”
“I … I …” faltered Stepan Trofimovitch.