He gave her a glass containing a fluid as colourless as water. Elena quickly drank the sour-sweet water, and suddenly felt cheerful. Elisaveta also drank it. Elena threw herself towards the mirror.
“I’m young again,” she exclaimed in a high voice.
Then she ran forward, embraced Elisaveta, and said cheerfully:
“And you too, Elisaveta, have grown young.”
An impetuous joy seized both sisters. They caught each other by the hands and began to dance and to twirl round the room. Then they suddenly felt ashamed. They stopped, and did not know which way to look; they laughed in their confusion. Elisaveta said:
“What a stupid pair we are! You think us ridiculous, don’t you?”
Trirodov smiled in a friendly fashion:
“That is the nature of this place,” he observed. “Terror and joy live here together.”
The sisters were shown many interesting things in the house—objects of art and of worship; things which told of distant lands and of hoary antiquity; engravings of a strange and disturbing character; variegated stones, turquoise, pearls; ugly, amorphous, and grotesque idols; representations of the god-child—there were many of these, but only one face profoundly stirred Elisaveta....