No!  And even if he did experience this, then it must have been in the very beginning of his career.  Now before him were only naked abdomens, naked backs, and opened mouths.  Not one exemplar of all this faceless herd of every Saturday would he have recognized subsequently on the street.  The main thing was the necessity of finishing as soon as possible the inspection in one establishment, in order to pass on to another, to a third, a ninth, a twentieth...

“Susannah Raitzina!” the doctor finally called out.

No one walked up to the table.

All the inmates of the house began to exchange glances and to whisper.

“Jennka ...  Where’s Jennka? ...”

But she was not among the girls.

Then Tamara, just released by the doctor, moved a little forward and said: 

“She isn’t here.  She hasn’t had a chance to get herself ready yet.  Excuse me, Mr. Doctor, I’ll go right away and call her.”

She ran into the corridor and did not return for a long time.  After her went, at first Emma Edwardovna, then Zociya, several girls, and even Anna Markovna herself.

“Pfui!  What indecency is this! ... “the majestic Emma Edwardovna was saying in the corridor, making an indignant face.  “And eternally this Jennka! ...  Always this Jennka! ...  It seems my patience has already burst ...”

But Jennka was nowhere—­neither in her room, nor in Tamara’s.  They looked into other chambers, in all the out-of-the-way corners ...  But she did not prove to be even there.

“We must look in the water-closet ...  Perhaps she’s there?” surmised Zoe.

But this institution was locked from the inside with a bolt.  Emma Edwardovna knocked on the door with her fist.

“Jennie, do come out at last!  What foolishness is this?”

And, raising her voice, she cried out impatiently and threateningly: 

“Do you hear, you swine? ...  Come out this minute—­the doctor’s waiting!”

But there was no answer of any sort.

All exchanged glances with fear in their eyes, with one and the same thought in mind.

Emma Edwardovna shook the door by the brass knob, but the door did not yield.

“Go after Simeon!” Anna Markovna directed.

Simeon was called ...  He came, sleepy and morose, as was his wont.  By the distracted faces of the girls and the housekeepers, he already saw that some misunderstanding or other had occurred, in which his professional cruelty and strength were required.  When they explained to him what the matter was, he silently took the door-knob with both hands, braced himself against the wall, and gave a yank.

The knob remained in his hands; and he himself, staggering backward, almost fell to the floor on his back.

“A-a, hell!” he began to growl in a stifled voice.  “Give me a table knife.”

Through the crack of the door he felt the inner bolt with the table knife; whittled away with the blade the edges of the crack, and widened it so that he could at last push the end of the knife through it, and began gradually to scrape back the bolt.  Only the grating of metal against metal could be heard.