"Catch her! Hold her!"
"Tear it off!"
"Take her fan away!"
The Ear of Corn shouted:
"Do you know who got the prize? Kashtanova, the actress! She stole someone else's husband, and yet she gets the prize! They don't give it to honest women, they give it to that creature!"
And she threw herself towards the Geisha, with piercing screams, clenching her bony fists. Others came after her, mostly her cavaliers. The Geisha fought them off desperately. A wild tussle began. The fan was broken, torn out of her hands, thrown on the floor and trodden upon. The crowd, with the Geisha in the middle, swayed furiously across the room, sweeping onlookers from their feet. Neither the Routilovs nor the Club stewards could reach the Geisha. The Geisha, strong and alert, screamed piercingly, scratched and bit her assailants. She held her mask on tightly now with one hand, now with the other.
"They ought all to be beaten," screeched some spiteful little woman.
The tipsy Grushina, hiding behind the others, urged on Volodin and other acquaintances.
"Pinch her! Pinch the creature!" she shouted.
Machigin, holding his bleeding nose, jumped out from the crowd and complained: