"Pardon me for having disturbed you," said Paul Petrovitch without looking at her, "but my object in coming here is to ask you (for I understand that you are sending in to the town to-day) if you would procure me a little green tea for my own personal use."
"I will," replied Thenichka. "How much ought I to have ordered?"
"I think that half a pound will suffice. But what a change!" he went on glancing around the room with an eye which included also in its purview Thenichka's features. "It is those curtains that I am referring to," he explained on seeing that she had failed to grasp his meaning.
"Yes—those curtains. They were given me by Nikolai Petrovitch himself, and have been hung a long while."
"But it is a long time, remember, since last I paid you a visit. The room looks indeed comfortable, does it not?"
"Yes, thanks to Nikolai Petrovitch's kindness," whispered Thenichka.
"And you find things better here than in the wing?" continued Paul Petrovitch politely—also, without the least shadow of a smile.
"I do."
"And who is lodged in the wing in your place?"
"The laundry women."