evening, when I was just getting ready to go, the daughter of
Dolzhikov, the engineer, walked into the room with a bundle of books
under her arm.

I bowed to her.

"Oh, how do you do!" she said, recognizing me at once, and holding
out her hand. "I'm very glad to see you."

She smiled and looked with curiosity and wonder at my smock, my
pail of paste, the paper stretched on the floor; I was embarrassed,
and she, too, felt awkward.

"You must excuse my looking at you like this," she said. "I have
been told so much about you. Especially by Dr. Blagovo; he is simply
in love with you. And I have made the acquaintance of your sister
too; a sweet, dear girl, but I can never persuade her that there
is nothing awful about your adopting the simple life. On the contrary,
you have become the most interesting man in the town."

She looked again at the pail of paste and the wallpaper, and went
on:

"I asked Dr. Blagovo to make me better acquainted with you, but
apparently he forgot, or had not time. Anyway, we are acquainted
all the same, and if you would come and see me quite simply I should
be extremely indebted to you. I so long to have a talk. I am a
simple person," she added, holding out her hand to me, "and I hope
that you will feel no constraint with me. My father is not here,
he is in Petersburg."