Isvostchiks [cabmen], tradespeople, cooks, workmen,

and government clerks, stopped and looked curiously at the

prisoner; some shook their heads and thought, "This is what evil

conduct, conduct unlike ours, leads to." The children stopped and

gazed at the robber with frightened looks; but the thought that

the soldiers were preventing her from doing more harm quieted

their fears. A peasant, who had sold his charcoal, and had had

some tea in the town, came up, and, after crossing himself, gave

her a copeck. The prisoner blushed and muttered something; she

noticed that she was attracting everybody's attention, and that

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pleased her. The comparatively fresh air also gladdened her, but

it was painful to step on the rough stones with the ill-made

prison shoes on her feet, which had become unused to walking.

Passing by a corn-dealer's shop, in front of which a few pigeons

were strutting about, unmolested by any one, the prisoner almost

touched a grey-blue bird with her foot; it fluttered up and flew

close to her ear, fanning her with its wings. She smiled, then

sighed deeply as she remembered her present position.




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