“Hans, madam ...”

“If Hans proved to be an industrious and thrifty man, then it would not be at all hard for you to get up on your feet altogether, after three or four years.  What do you think?”

“Ah, madam, you are a little mistaken.  You have overlooked that, in the very best of positions, I, even denying myself in everything, will not be able to put aside more than fifteen, twenty roubles a month; whereas here, with a prudent economy, I gain up to a hundred roubles and at once carry them away with a book into the savings bank.  And besides that, just imagine, gnadige Frau, what a humiliating position to be the servant in a house!  Always to depend on the caprice or the disposition of the spirits of the masters!  And the master always pesters you with foolishness.  Pfui! ..  And the mistress is jealous, picks, and scolds.”

“No ...  I don’t understand ...” meditatively drawled Rovinskaya, without looking the German in the eyes, but casting hers on the floor.  “I’ve heard a great deal of your life here, in these ... what do you call them? .. these houses.  They say it is something horrible.  That you’re forced to love the most repulsive, old and hideous men, that you are plucked and exploited in the most cruel manner ...”

“Oh, never, madam ...  Each one of us has an account book, wherein is written accurately the income and expense.  During last month I earned a little more than five hundred roubles.  As always, two-thirds went to the proprietress for board, quarters, fuel, light, linen ...  There remains to me more than a hundred and fifty, it is not so?  Fifty I spent on costumes and all sorts of trifles.  A hundred I save.  What exploitation is it, then, madam, I ask you?  And if I do not like a man at all—­true, there are some who are exceedingly nasty—­I can always say I am sick, and instead of me will go one of the newest girls ...”

“But then ... pardon me, I do not know your name ...”

“Elsa.”

“They say, that you’re treated very roughly ... beaten at times ... compelled to do that which you don’t want to and which is repulsive to you?”

“Never, madam!” dropped Elsa haughtily.  “We all live here as a friendly family of our own.  We are all natives of the same land or relatives, and God grant that many should live so in their own families as we live here.  True, on Yamskaya Street there happen various scandals and fights and misunderstandings.  But that’s there ... in these ... in the rouble establishments.  The Russian girls drink a lot and always have one lover.  And they do not think at all of their future.”

“You are prudent, Elsa,” said Rovinskaya in an oppressed tone.  “All this is well.  But, what of the chance disease?  Infection?  Why, that is death?  And how can you guess?”

“And again—­no, madam.  I won’t let a man into my bed before I make a detailed medical inspection of him ...  I am guaranteed, at the least, against seventy-five per cent.”