Resurrection

Katusha had begun to smoke some time before, and since the young

shopman had thrown her up she was getting more and more into the

habit of drinking. It was not so much the flavour of wine that

tempted her as the fact that it gave her a chance of forgetting

the misery she suffered, making her feel more unrestrained and

more confident of her own worth, which she was not when quite

sober; without wine she felt sad and ashamed. Just at this time a

woman came along who offered to place her in one of the largest

establishments in the city, explaining all the advantages and

benefits of the situation. Katusha had the choice before her of

either going into service or accepting this offer--and she chose

the latter. Besides, it seemed to her as though, in this way, she

could revenge herself on her betrayer and the shopman and all

those who had injured her. One of the things that tempted her,

and was the cause of her decision, was the woman telling her she

might order her own dresses--velvet, silk, satin, low-necked ball

dresses, anything she liked. A mental picture of herself in a

bright yellow silk trimmed with black velvet with low neck and

short sleeves conquered her, and she gave up her passport. On the

same evening the procuress took an isvostchik and drove her to

the notorious house kept by Carolina Albertovna Kitaeva.

From that day a life of chronic sin against human and divine laws

commenced for Katusha Maslova, a life which is led by hundreds of

thousands of women, and which is not merely tolerated but

sanctioned by the Government, anxious for the welfare of its

subjects; a life which for nine women out of ten ends in painful

disease, premature decrepitude, and death.

Katusha Maslova lived this life for seven years. During these

years she twice changed houses, and had once been to the

hospital. In the seventh year of this life, when she was

twenty-six years old, happened that for which she was put in

prison and for which she was now being taken to be tried, after

more than three months of confinement with thieves and murderers

in the stifling air of a prison.