442
BORIS PILNYAK
apart and her arms akimbo, she sat on a wooden block at some
distance from the others. Pavel Feodorovich was saying:
"I bet you daren't take off your blouse, Zina, I bet you
daren't undo your brassiere!"
Zina held her hand pressed to her mouth so as not to burst
into loud laughter and she replied with a giggle:
"Yes I dare!"
"No you daren't."
Klavdia said with contempt:
"She'll do it all right. Show ' em your tits, Zinka! Let 'em
have a good look. Want to see mine as well? You think I'm
drunk, don't you? Well I'm not. I've not been drunk since the
last time you came. Today I just wanted to get boiled. Boiled,
you understand? Boiled, boiled, boiled! So what the hell? Show
'em your tits, Zina! You show 'em to your Kolya, don't you? ...
Want to see mine as well?"
Klavdia ripped at the collar of her blouse. The other girls
rushed over to her and Katerina said soberly:
"Klavdia, don't tear your clothes, or they'll find out at
home."
Zina had difficulty in standing up. Klavdia caught hold of
Zina and put her arms round her. Klavdia kissed her.
"I mustn't tear my clothes? All right, I won't.... You
show them yours, then. Let them have a good look. We've got
no prejudices here! ... So you buy mahogany?"
"All right, I'll show them," said Zina obediently, and she
began to unbutton her blouse in a business-like way.
The fourth girl went outside to be sick.
The Bezdetovs, of course, felt that this was just another deal.
Buying and selling was all they knew about.
It was raining outside and the trees rustled in the wind. At
this same hour Karazin was having one of his fits of senile hy–
steria and the down-and-outs in the brickworks, sitting by the
furnace in their underground, were praising, with the eyes and
voices of the madmen, the year nineteen hundred and nineteen,
