I will not stir from
this spot till I have told your father all that I think about it.
Ill, indeed! What matters illness when it is a question of eternal
damnation!" Madame Zamenoy put so much stress upon the latter word
that her brother-in-law almost jumped from under the bed-clothes. Nina
raised herself, as she was standing, to her full height, and a smile of
derision came upon her face. "Oh, yes! I daresay you do not mind it,"
said Madame Zamenoy. "I daresay you can laugh now at all the pains of
hell. Castaways such as you are always blind to their own danger; but
your father, I hope, has not fallen so far as to care nothing for his
religion, though he seems to have forgotten what is due to his family."
"I have forgotten nothing," said old Balatka.
"Why then do you not forbid her to do this thing?" demanded Madame
Zamenoy. But the old man had recognised too well the comparative
security of silence to be drawn into argument, and therefore merely hid
himself more completely among the clothes. "Am I to get no answer from
you, Josef?" said Madame Zamenoy.
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