MAHOGANY
445
when Rimma, already turned thirty, was losing her freshness and
sowing the seeds of despair. At that time there was a Treasury
official in the town, a good-looking fellow who took part in
local dramatics, and a prize swine. He had a wife and children
and drank like a fish. Rimma fell in love with him and was un–
able to resist the consequences of her love. Everything about it
was shameful. This love affair was a total disgrace from the
standpoint of the local conventions; it was disastrous from begin–
ning to end. All around there were woods where it could have
been carried on in secret, but she chose to yield herself to this
man one night in one of the main streets, and not once during
the three years of her shame did she meet the man in privacy,
preferring assignations in a neighboring wood, in the street, in an
empty tumbledown house or in a derelict barge. Yakov Karpo–
vich disowned his sister and threw her out of the house, and even
Kapitolina turned against her. She was pointed out
in
the street
and ostracized. The lawful wife of the Treasury official used to
come and slap her face and egged on the local boys to do like–
wise. The town, by virtue of all its laws and conventions, sided
with the legal wife. Rimma gave birth to a daughter, Varvara,
who was the very incarnation of her shame and the witness
thereof. Klavdia, her second daughter, was a further witness to
her disgrace. The Treasury official left the town and Rimma,
now well over thirty, was left with the two small children to live
a life of abject poverty and shame. Varvara, the eldest daughter,
was now married-very happily married-and had two children
of her own, the granddaughters of Rimma Karpovna. Varvara's
husband worked in an office and so did Varvara herself. Rimma
Karpovna, as the founder of the family, now had quite a large
household on her hands. The good woman was now well pleased
with life. Old age had shrunk her, but happiness had rounded
het out. Small and plump, she had kind, lively eyes. As for her
sister Kapitolina, she was completely preoccupied by the life of
Rimtna, Varvara, Klavdia and the granddaughters. All her chas–
tity and all her decency in the eyes of the town had proved to
be
