“This is how she sits literally for days together, utterly alone, without moving; she tries her fortune with the cards, or looks in the looking-glass,” said Shatov, pointing her out to me from the doorway. “He doesn’t feed her, you know. The old woman in the lodge brings her something sometimes out of charity; how can they leave her all alone like this with a candle!”
To my surprise Shatov spoke aloud, just as though she were not in the room.
“Good day, Shatushka!” Mlle. Lebyadkin said genially.
“I’ve brought you a visitor, Marya Timofyevna,” said Shatov.
“The visitor is very welcome. I don’t know who it is you’ve brought, I don’t seem to remember him.” She scrutinised me intently from behind the candle, and turned again at once to Shatov (and she took no more notice of me for the rest
