"On the women's side also every one is so zealous and so good!" she said, after a pause. "There's that lady doctor with the spectacles, and all the nurses, they are all first-rate people; they talk to one so simply, so that one understands at once what they want done."
"Then you are contented also?" asked Grigori, when his enthusiasm had cooled a little.
"I should rather think I was contented! Lord! yes!... just reckon up!... I get twelve roubles, and you get twenty.... That makes thirty-two roubles a month! And our keep besides.... What a lot we shall be able to save if the cholera lasts right on into the winter!... Then we shall be able ... at last ... please God ... to get out of that hole of a cellar!..."
"Hm!... Yes, we can think about that,...." said Orloff thoughtfully; and after a few moments he tapped Matrona on the shoulder, and continued, with a ring of hope in his voice, "Ah, Matrona, perhaps the sun of happiness may yet shine upon us!... We won't lose courage, will we?"
She also was filled with enthusiasm.
"Yes, if you would only keep sober," she remarked after a few moments' pause, in a doubtful tone.
"Don't talk about that now; that will depend entirely on circumstances.... Once our lives become different, then my habits will alter."
"Please God that may indeed happen!" sighed Matrona from the bottom of her heart "Well, don't say any more about it!"
"Dear Grischenka!"
They separated, experiencing quite new sensations towards each other. They were full of joyful courage, and firmly resolved to put forth all their strength, so as to succeed in their new work. Three or four days passed, and Orloff had already earned several words of praise for his quickness and zeal. At the same time he remarked, however, that the other attendants were envious of him, and were trying to make mischief, so that he had to be constantly on his guard. This awoke in him a feeling of enmity, whereas, before that, he had been good friends with Pronim. The secret and open enmity of these fellow-workers was really a pain to him. "The jealous brutes," he thought to himself, and ground his teeth together. "But I'll get the chance some day of paying them back in their own coin!" Unconsciously his thoughts travelled to Matrona—for he could talk over everything with her. She would not envy him his success, and would not, like this fellow Pronim, bum his boots with carbolic acid.