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Tatiana, one of the laundresses referred to above (as a trained and skilful laundress she was in charge of the fine linen only), was a woht, thin, fair-haired, with arded as of evil omen in Russia--a token of unhappy life Tatiana could not boast of her good luck From her earliest youth she had been badly treated; she had done the work of two, and had never known affection; she had been poorly clothed and had received the ses Relations she had practically none; an uncle she had once had, a butler, left behind in the country as useless, and other uncles of hers were peasants--that was all At one tiood looks were very soon over In disposition, she was very meek, or, rather, scared; towards herself, she felt perfect indifference; of others, she stood in et her work done in good time, never talked to any one, and treh the latter scarcely knew her by sight When Gerasiht fro his huge figure, tried all she could to avoidhim, even dropped her eyelids when so from the house to the laundry Gerasim at first paid no special attention to her, then he used to san even to stare adly at her, and at last he never took his eyes off her She took his fancy, whether by the mild expression of her face or the timidity of heracross the yard, with a starched dressing-jacket of her erssoorously by the elbow; she turned round and fairly screa inarticulate caressing grunts, he held out to her a gingerbread cock with gold tinsel on his tail and wings She was about to refuse it, but he thrust it forcibly into her hand, shook his head, walked away, and turning round, oncevery affectionately to her Froave her no peace; wherever she went, he was on the spot at once, co his hands; all at once he would pull a ribbon out of the bosom of his smock and put it in her hand, or would sweep the dust out of her way The poor girl simply did not kno to behave or what to do Soon the whole household knew of the dumb porter's wiles; jeers, jokes, sly hints were showered upon Tatiana At Gerasim, however, it was not every one ould dare to scoff; he did not like jokes; indeed, in his presence, she, too, was left in peace Whether she liked it or not, the girl found herself to be under his protection Like all deaf-mutes, he was very suspicious, and very readily perceived when they were laughing at him or at her One day, at dinner, the wardrobe-keeper, Tatiana's superior, fell to nagging, as it is called, at her, and brought the poor thing to such a state that she did not knohere to look, and was alot up all of a sudden, stretched out his gigantic hand, laid it on the wardrobe-rim ferocity that her head positively flopped upon the table Every one was still Gerasie-soup 'Look at him, the dumb devil, the wood-demon!' they all ot up and went out into thethat Kapiton--the same Kapiton as the subject of the conversation reported above--was gossiping somewhat too attentively with Tatiana, Gerasi up a shaft that was standing in a corner by one end, lightly, but nificantly, menaced him with it Since then no one addressed a word to Tatiana