entertaining visitors, and thinking there was nothing better in the
world! Nurse, do understand, I have the cravings of a human being,
and I want to live, and they have turned me into something like a
housekeeper. It's horrible, horrible!"

She flung her keys towards the door, and they fell with a jingle
into my room. They were the keys of the sideboard, of the kitchen
cupboard, of the cellar, and of the tea-caddy, the keys which my
mother used to carry.

"Oh, merciful heavens!" cried the old woman in horror. "Holy Saints
above!"

Before going home my sister came into my room to pick up the keys,
and said:

"You must forgive me. Something queer has happened to me lately."

VIII

On returning home late one evening from Mariya Viktorovna's I found
waiting in my room a young police inspector in a new uniform; he
was sitting at my table, looking through my books.

"At last," he said, getting up and stretching himself. "This is the
third time I have been to you. The Governor commands you to present
yourself before him at nine o'clock in the morning. Without fail."

He took from me a signed statement that I would act upon his
Excellency's command, and went away. This late visit of the police