[CHAPTER III]
One Monday morning, just as the Orloffs had finished their breakfast, there appeared on the threshold of their unfriendly-looking dwelling the imposing form of a police-officer. Grischka Orloff sprang frightened from his seat, and catching a glimpse of a startled and reproachful look in his wife's eye, made vain efforts to recall to his dulled brain the events of the last few days. Matrona watched him with looks that spoke of anxious reproach. In obstinate silence, though full of scared expectation, Grischka turned his troubled eyes on the unexpected guest.
"This way! Down here!" cried the police-officer to some one who was coming down behind him.
"It's as dark as a vault here!... What a devil's hole is this merchant Petounukoff's house!" The words were spoken in a young, cheerful voice.
The police-officer moved on one side, and, with a rapid step, a medical student in a white coat entered the Orloffs' dwelling, holding his cap in his hand. His head was smooth shaven, his forehead high and sunburnt; he had cheerful brown eyes, which smiled through his spectacles.
"Good-morning!" he exclaimed, in his still youthful ringing alto voice. "I have the honour to introduce myself to you; I am a member of the Sanitary Commission. I have come to inquire about the state in which you live here, and just to report what sort of air you are breathing.... It's quite abominable air!"
Orloff breathed more freely, and a look of relief passed across his face. From the first moment, the medical student, with his boisterous unaffected ways, pleased him; the healthy young face, covered on cheeks and chin with fair downy hair, had something so friendly and good-natured in it The fresh free laughter of the young man brought into the Orloffs' cellar a ray of light and of brightness.
"Now, my good people," continued the student, after a pause; "you might empty the slop-pail a little more often, for it is from that this horrible smell comes. I should like to advise you, my good woman, to wash it out more often, and to place chloride of lime in the corners of the room. That will purify the air, and it's a very good remedy against the damp. And you, my fine fellow—why do you look so upset?" He turned towards Orloff, seized his hand suddenly, and felt his pulse. The quick assured manner of the medical student impressed the Orloffs to such a degree that they seemed at first to be struck dumb. Matrona smiled constrainedly and watched him in silence, whilst Grigori seemed as if refreshed by the sight of the open fair young face.
"Well, and how are your stomachs feeling?" asked the medical student "You can speak out openly to me without any fuss—it's a question you see of life and death.... If anything is not quite right we will treat you gratis with some simple citrate medicine or something of that sort, and you will be all right in a few days."
"We can't complain; we are fairly healthy," said Grigori, smiling. "And if I don't seem quite up to the mark, it's nothing out of the common—to tell the truth, I took a drop too much last night...."