"A fine career, upon my word!" sullenly rejoined Novikoff, looking

aside.

"What is wrong with it?" asked Sarudine, in genuine amazement, removing

the cigarette from his lips.

"Why, what's an actress? Nothing else but a harlot!" replied Novikoff,

with sudden heat. Jealousy tortured him; the thought that the young

woman whose body he loved could appear before other men in an alluring

dress that would exhibit her charms in order to provoke their passions.

"Surely it is going too far to say that," replied Sarudine, raising his

eyebrows.

Novikoff's glance was full of hatred. He regarded Sarudine as one of

those men who meant to rob him of his beloved; moreover, his good looks

annoyed him.

"No, not in the least too far," he retorted. "To appear half nude on

the stage and in some voluptuous scene exhibit one's personal charms to

those who in an hour or so take their leave as they would of some

courtesan after paying the usual fee! A charming career indeed!"

"My friend," said Sanine, "every woman in the first instance likes to

be admired for her personal charms."

Novikoff shrugged his shoulders irritably.

"What a silly, coarse statement!" said he.

"At any rate, coarse or not, it's the truth," replied Sanine. "Lida

would be most effective on the stage, and I should like to see her

there."

Although in the others this speech roused a certain instinctive

curiosity, they all felt ill at ease. Sarudine, who thought himself

more intelligent and tactful than the rest, deemed it his duty to

dispel this vague feeling of embarrassment.

"Well, what do you think the young lady ought to do? Get married?

Pursue a course of study, or let her talent be lost? That would be a

crime against nature that had endowed her with its fairest gift."

"Oh!" exclaimed Sanine, with undisguised sarcasm, "till now the idea of

such a crime had never entered my head."

Novikoff laughed maliciously, but replied politely enough to Sarudine.

"Why a crime? A good mother or a female doctor is worth a thousand

times more than an actress."

"Not at all!" said Tanaroff, indignantly.

"Don't you find this sort of talk rather boring?" asked Sanine.

Sarudine's rejoinder was lost in a fit of coughing. They all of them

really thought such a discussion tedious and unnecessary; and yet they

all felt somewhat offended. An unpleasant silence reigned.

Lida and Maria Ivanovna appeared on the verandah. Lida had heard her

brother's last words, but did not know to what they referred.




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