Summary

In Chapter 3, Helene led Aliocha down the train corridors to her compartment in first class. On the way there, they passed a middle-aged man who observed them together. The man ogled Helene and reflected that he would have grabbed her butt had the conscript not been there. Helene and Aliocha arrived in Helene’s compartment and Aliocha went to sleep.

While Aliocha slept, Helene left the compartment to get some hot water and spoke with another provodnitsa, this one is described as having brown hair to differentiate her from the blonde-haired provodnitsa in Aliocha’s part of the train. They had a stilted but friendly conversation about the landscape and the provodnitsa showed Helene some photos of bears that she has taken from the train.

Helene returned to her compartment and the sleeping Aliocha. She thought about the circumstances that brought her to Russia...