|
The visitor made a sign which meant that he would never reveal this to
anyone and went on with his narrative.
The master and his unknown mistress loved one another so strongly that
they became utterly inseparable. Ivan could clearly see for himself the two
basement rooms, where it was always twilight from the shade of the lilac
bush and the fence : the shabby red furniture, the bureau, the clock on top
of it which struck the half-hours and books, books from the painted floor to
the smoke-blackened ceiling, and the stove.
Ivan learned that from the very first days of their affair the man and
his mistress decided that fate had brought them together on the corner of
the Tverskaya and that side-street and that they were made for each other to
eternity.
Ivan heard his visitor describe how the lovers spent their day. Her
first action on arrival was to put on an apron and light an oil stove on a
wooden table in the cramped hall, with its tap and sink that the wretched
patient had recalled with such pride. There she cooked lunch and served it
on an oval table in the living-room. When the May storms blew and the
jggjfhgukjfofhf ufn fpg lt r u hrh t jtpufpn tnupt t
sdjksdfsdfsdlgkj sdflkjsdf lksdjfsdfsdf
|
