And, with a thoughtful shake of his bead, Kalinin raised his boyish eyes towards the blue patches in the rain-washed sky.
"Duly she found the verses," he continued after a while, and with a vehemence that seemed wholly independent of his will. "And thereupon she summoned me to her room.
"'What are we to do about it all?' she inquired.
"She was but half-dressed, and practically the whole of her bosom was visible to my sight. Also, her naked feet had on them only slippers, and as she sat in her chair she kept rocking one foot to and fro in a maddening way.
"'What are we to do about it all?' she repeated.
"'What am I to say about it, at length I replied, 'save that I feel as though I were not really existing on earth?'
"'Are you one who can hold your tongue?' was her next question.
"I nodded—nothing else could I compass, for further speech had become impossible. Whereupon, rising with brows puckered, she fetched a couple of small phials, and, with the aid of ingredients thence, mixed a powder which she wrapped in paper, and handed me with the words:
"'Only one way of escape offers from the Plagues of Egypt. Here I have a certain powder. Tonight the doctor is to dine with us. Place the powder in his soup, and within a few days I shall be free!—yes, free for you!'
"I crossed myself, and duly took from her the paper, whilst a mist rose, and swam before my eyes, as I did so, and my legs became perfectly numb. What I next did I hardly know, for inwardly I was swooning. Indeed, until Kliachka's arrival the same evening I remained practically in a state of coma."