affectionately, treated her to choice cakes and sweet wine, while she dispatched her servant somewhere with a note.  In the evening a tall man with long hair just turning gray, and gray beard, came into the room.  The old man immediately seated himself beside Maslova and began to jest.  The hostess called him into an adjoining room, and Maslova overheard her say:  “As fresh as a rose; just from the country.”  Then the hostess called in Maslova and told her that the man was an author, very rich, and will be very generous if he takes a liking to her.  He did take a liking to her, gave her twenty-five rubles, and promised to call on her often.  The money was soon spent in settling for her board at her aunt’s, for a new dress, hat and ribbons.  A few days afterward the author sent for her a second time.  She called.  He gave her another twenty-five ruble bill and offered to rent apartments for her where she could reside separately.

While living in the apartments rented by the author, Maslova became infatuated with a jolly clerk living in the same house.  She herself told the author of her infatuation, and moved into a smaller apartment.  The clerk, who had promised to marry her, without saying anything, left for Nijhni, evidently casting her off, and Maslova remained alone.  She wished to remain in the apartment, but the landlord would not permit a single woman to occupy it, and she returned to her aunt.  Her fashionable dress, cape and hat won her the respect of her aunt, who no longer dared to offer her work as a washerwoman, considering her present position far above it.  The question of working in the laundry did not even occur to Maslova now.  She looked with compassion on the life of drudgery led by these pale, emaciated washerwomen, some of whom showed symptoms of consumption, washing and ironing in a stifling, steam-laden atmosphere with the windows open summer and winter, and she was horrified at the thought that she, too, might be driven to such drudgery.

Maslova had for a long time been addicted to cigarette smoking, but of late she had been getting more and more accustomed to drink.  The wine attracted her, not because of its taste, but because it enabled her to forget her past life, to comfort herself with ease, and the confidence of her own worth that it gave her.  Without wine she was despondent and abashed.  There was the choice of two things before her; either the humiliating occupation of a servant, with the certain unwelcome attentions of the men, or a secure, quiet and legitimatized position of everybody’s mistress.  She wished to revenge herself on her seducer, as well as the clerk, and all those that brought misfortune upon her.  Besides, she could not withstand the temptation of having all the dresses her heart desired—­dresses made of velvet, gauze and silk—­ball dresses, with open neck and short sleeves.  And when Maslova imagined herself in a bright yellow silk dress, with velvet trimmings, decolette, she made her choice.