THE CHORUS GIRL

One day when she was younger and better-looking, and when her voice was stronger, Nikolay Petrovitch Kolpakov, her adorer, was sitting in the outer room in her summer villa.  It was intolerably hot and stifling.  Kolpakov, who had just dined and drunk a whole bottle of inferior port, felt ill-humoured and out of sorts.  Both were bored and waiting for the heat of the day to be over in order to go for a walk.

All at once there was a sudden ring at the door.  Kolpakov, who was sitting with his coat off, in his slippers, jumped up and looked inquiringly at Pasha.

“It must be the postman or one of the girls,” said the singer.

Kolpakov did not mind being found by the postman or Pasha’s lady friends, but by way of precaution gathered up his clothes and went into the next room, while Pasha ran to open the door.  To her great surprise in the doorway stood, not the postman and not a girl friend, but an unknown woman, young and beautiful, who was dressed like a lady, and from all outward signs was one.

The stranger was pale and was breathing heavily as though she had been running up a steep flight of stairs.

“What is it?” asked Pasha.

The lady did not at once answer.  She took a step forward, slowly looked about the room, and sat down in a way that suggested that from fatigue, or perhaps illness, she could not stand; then for a long time her pale lips quivered as she tried in vain to speak.

“Is my husband here?” she asked at last, raising to Pasha her big eyes with their red tear-stained lids.

“Husband?” whispered Pasha, and was suddenly so frightened that her hands and feet turned cold.  “What husband?” she repeated, beginning to tremble.

“My husband, . . .  Nikolay Petrovitch Kolpakov.”

“N . . . no, madam. . . .  I . . .  I don’t know any husband.”

A minute passed in silence.  The stranger several times passed her handkerchief over her pale lips and held her breath to stop her inward trembling, while Pasha stood before her motionless, like a post, and looked at her with astonishment and terror.

“So you say he is not here?” the lady asked, this time speaking with a firm voice and smiling oddly.

“I . . .  I don’t know who it is you are asking about.”

“You are horrid, mean, vile . . .” the stranger muttered, scanning Pasha with hatred and repulsion.  “Yes, yes . . . you are horrid.  I am very, very glad that at last I can tell you so!”

Pasha felt that on this lady in black with the angry eyes and white slender fingers she produced the impression of something horrid and unseemly, and she felt ashamed of her chubby red cheeks, the pock-mark on her nose, and the fringe on her forehead, which never could be combed back.  And it seemed to her that if she had been thin, and had had no powder on her face and no fringe on her forehead, then she could have disguised the fact that she was not “respectable,” and she would not have felt so frightened and ashamed to stand facing this unknown, mysterious lady.