Summary

In Chapter 23, Sasha moves to Riga. For months, she rushes to the post office in hopes of a letter. She then stops by only occasionally. She thinks about her night in Suzdal with Andrei. She is angry that he talked of the requirement against marrying an actress, partly because she is not ready to marry and partly because he assumed the Theater had no requirements about marriage. She thinks about spending time at Andrei's house when she was 12 years old. His mother unexpectedly returned home. Instead of being upset, she served milk, placing Sasha's glass on a beautiful doily covered with embroidered roses. Sasha could not mesh the sight of her work-hardened hands with the beautiful needlework. She felt Andrei's home was “roughness stitched into beauty,” just as the doily was (138). As filming finishes, Sasha wonders if there is a reason why she...