Chapter 20 Chapter 03

About ten o'clock the next morning I was going out, intending to hurry to Vasilievsky Island, to see the old couple Ikhmenev, and then from their house to see Natasha as soon as possible.At this time, at the door, I suddenly ran into the girl who visited yesterday, Smith His granddaughter.She is here for me.I don't know why, but I remember how happy I was to see her.I hadn't had time to get a good look at her yesterday, so I was all the more surprised by her appearance today during the day.at least from the outside , it is hard to meet a more eccentric and peculiar person than her.Her small stature, her black eyes that flicker and flicker not quite like Russians, her thick and messy black hair, and her face-like silent and persistent gaze are enough to attract her attention.

Get the attention of any passerby on the street.What is particularly surprising is the look in her eyes: there is intelligence, but at the same time, the distrust and even suspicion of the Inquisitor are shining.Her little old and dirty dress, in the light of day, and It looked more like a pile of junk than yesterday.It seemed to me that she was ill, suffering from a chronic disease, which was gradually but mercilessly destroying her body.Her dark and pale face had an unnatural sallowness, suffering from sallowness. The color of jaundice.But generally speaking, she was not even ugly, despite her poverty and illness, and her ugly appearance.Her eyebrows are thin and curved.She was very pretty; particularly good was her broad, slightly low forehead, and the fine line of her mouth,

It looked proud and brave, but pale in color, only slightly reddish. "Ah, here you come again!" I cried. "I expected you to come. Come in!" She slowly crossed the threshold like yesterday, walked in, and looked around suspiciously.She glanced intently at her grandfather's former room, as if examining how much it had changed since the new occupants. "real Yes, with such a grandfather, there is such a granddaughter," I thought, "she is not crazy, right? ’ She remained silent; I waited for her to speak first. "I'm here to get the book!" She finally lowered her eyes, looked at the ground, and whispered.

"Oh, that's right! Your book, here it is, take it away! I kept it specially, waiting for you to pick it up." She looked at me curiously, curled her lips somehow strangely, as if trying to smile suspiciously.But this smile was fleeting, and immediately changed to the enigmatic and serious expression just now. "Did Grandpa ever tell you about me?" she asked, mocking him, looking me over from head to toe. "No, he didn't talk about you, but he..." "Then how did you know I was coming? Who told you?" she asked, interrupting me quickly. "Because I don't think it's possible for your grandfather to live here alone with no relatives. Besides, he's so old and in such bad health; so I think someone must come to see him often. Take it away, here's your book .are you studying these books?"

"No." "Then what do you want these books for?" "When I came here to visit my grandfather, my grandfather taught me." "Could it not come later?" "I stopped coming after that... I got sick," she added, as if justifying herself. "Who else do you have, a family, a mother, and a father?" She frowned suddenly, and even glanced at me with some terror.Then he lowered his head, turned around silently, and walked out of the room lightly, exactly like yesterday, as if he didn't bother to answer my question.I watched in surprise

she.But she stopped again at the door. "What happened to him?" she asked hastily, turning slightly towards me with exactly the same posture and movement as yesterday--she was just going out the same way yesterday, standing there, facing the door , asked about Azorka. I went up to her and hastily told her what I knew.She listened silently, with her head bowed, and she stood with her back to me. I also told her that the old man mentioned six things when he was dying. "I guess," I added, "there's a There was some precious relative of his, so I waited for someone to inquire about him.Since he mentioned you at the last minute, he must really like you. "

"No," she whispered, seemingly involuntarily, "he doesn't like me." She looked very excited.As I spoke to her, I bent slightly towards her and looked into her face.I found that she was desperately restraining her inner agitation, as if out of a kind of arrogance, she didn't want to reveal her feelings in front of me. of.Her face grew paler, and she bit her lower lip tightly.But what surprised me most was her strange heartbeat.Her heart beat more and more violently, so that at last it could be heard two or three paces away, It looked like she had an aneurysm.I thought she might burst into tears like yesterday; but she managed to restrain herself from crying.

"Where's the wall?" "What board?" "He died on the side wall." "After going out... I'll show you. By the way, I said, what's your name?" "Don't ask..." "Why don't you ask?" "Don't ask, don't ask; I don't have a name...nobody calls me," she said hastily, with a hint of anger, and then moved her body again, wanting to leave.I stopped her. "Wait, you're a weird kid! You know, I'm doing it for your own good; I've pitied you since I heard you crying on the corner of the stairs yesterday, and I feel bad when I think about it... Besides, your grandfather is me Watch him die when he gets to six

, must be thinking of you, he seems to mean to ask me to take care of you.I've dreamed of him in all my dreams... See, I've kept your book till now, but you're so self-conscious as if you're afraid of me.You're probably poor, an orphan, maybe in foster care here, isn't it? " I enthusiastically persuaded her that I myself did not know that there was something so attractive about her, that there was something else in my affections than pity.Is it the mystique of the whole setting, is it Smith's deep impression on me, or is it my My own peculiar mood - I can't explain it, anyway, there is something that makes me have a strong interest in her.She seemed to have been moved by my words; she gave me a rather queer look, but she was no longer stern, but gazed meekly and for a long time at me.

I; then lowered my eyes thoughtfully. "Elena," she whispered suddenly, unexpectedly and very low. "Your name is Yelena?" "yes……" "So, will you come to see me often in the future?" "No... I don't know... I must come," she whispered, seeming to be struggling and thinking.Suddenly somewhere a wall clock strikes the hour.She shivered, looked at me with an indescribably painful sadness, and whispered: "What time is it?" La? " "It's about half past ten." She let out a cry of terror. "Lord!" she said, and galloped away.But in the passage room I stopped her again.

"I can't let you go like this," I said. "What are you afraid of? Going back late?" "Yes, yes, I sneaked in! Let me go! She'll get me!" she cried, obviously slipping her tongue.While talking, I struggled to break free from my hand. "Listen to me, don't make trouble; you're going to Vasilievsky Island, and I'm going there too, on Thirteen. I'm late too. I want to hire a car and go by car. Would you like to go with me? I'll take you there. It's faster than walking..." "You can't come to me, you can't," she cried again, terrified.It seemed that I was terribly frightened at the thought that I might go to her place, and even my face was crooked. "I told you just now that I want to go to Thirteen to deal with my own business, not to your place! I will not follow you either. It will be there soon by car. Let's go!" We both hurried downstairs.I took a cab at random, and it was a very bad one, and Yelena could be seen in a hurry to agree to come with me.The most puzzling thing is that I'm too scared to ask her questions. .When I asked her what she was afraid of at home, she waved at me repeatedly and almost jumped out of the car. "What kind of secret does she have?" I thought. She felt awkward sitting in the carriage.Every time the carriage rocked, she would grab my coat with her small, chapped, dirty left hand so as not to fall.Her other hand held her books tightly; The books were dear to her, as the case may be.When she was arranging her clothes, one of her feet was suddenly exposed. To my great surprise, I saw that she was wearing a pair of shoes full of holes and no socks.Although I have made up my mind never to speak , Never ask her anything endlessly, but now I can't help it. "Don't you have socks?" I asked, "It's so humid and cold, how can you walk with bare feet?" "No," she answered hastily. "Oh, my God, don't you live in someone's house! You should ask them for a pair of socks if you want to go out." "I like it myself." "You're going to get sick and you're going to die." "Dead and pulled down." She was clearly unwilling to answer my question and was angry with me. "Look, here's where he died," I pointed her to the house where the old man died. She looked intently, then turned around and begged me: "For God's sake, don't follow me. I'll come, I will! Come as soon as I can!" "Well, I've said I'll never go there, but what are you afraid of! You must be very unlucky. It hurts me to see you..." "I'm not afraid of anybody," she replied with a certain resentment in her voice. "Didn't you just say: 'She's gonna beat me!'" "Hit it!" she answered, her eyes twinkling. "Let her be beaten! Let her be beaten!" she repeated in agony, and pursed her upper lip somewhat contemptuously, and began to tremble. Finally, we arrived at Vasilievsky Island.She stopped the carriage at the intersection of Liutiao, looked around worriedly, and jumped out of the carriage. "Go away; I must come. I must!" she repeated with great concern, begging me not to follow her. "Come on, come on!" I'm leaving.But I didn't take a few steps on Binhe Street in the car, so I sent the carriage away, then turned around and walked to Liutiao, and quickly ran to the opposite side of the street.I saw her; she had not had time to run very far, though she walked quickly, and looked back now and then; He even stopped once, and stood for a while to see carefully: Am I following her?But I hid behind the door of a house I happened to meet, and she didn't see me.She kept walking, I kept hiding across the street, followed her . My curiosity was aroused, and I had to find out.Although I decided not to send it with her, I must find out where the house she entered is, in case of accidents.I was under the influence of a feeling both heavy and strange.I It felt a lot like the feeling I had when Azorka died, when her grandfather was in the grocery store...