A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 267 



and her husband had never been on the best of terms, 

 and the constant interference of her sister, Anastasia, 

 had not made for peace. The chmax had come two 

 years before, when, during the winter, the poor woman 

 had developed scurvy. Her condition killed what little 

 remained of her husband's affection, and several times 

 he ill-treated her brutally before her son. In the 

 summer she had gone to the south for medical treat- 

 ment, and was now living at Achinsk with the younger 

 children. Meanwhile, Anastasia Ivanowna had usurped 

 her place at Grolchika, and although, to do her justice, 

 she meant to do her best for her nephew and niece, 

 yet, as we had ample opportunity of observing, she 

 treated them simply as unpaid servants. During the 

 previous winter, while her father and her aunt had gone 

 together on a trading expedition into the tundra, 

 Marusia had lived alone in the dreary little house with 

 only the man, Michael, and his witless wife for 

 companions. Only those who have lived at such a 

 place as Golchika can have the faintest idea of the 

 severity of those arctic winters, when for two months 

 the frozen land sees no daylight, and the pourga howls 

 over the tundra. And how greatly must the terrors of 

 the solitude increase when there are no books and little 

 society to occupy the mind ! After such an experience 

 the wonder was, not that the girl looked listless and 

 depressed, but that she kept her reason at all. However, 

 this autumn, her father had consented that she should 

 go to Achinsk to see her mother and learn dressmaking. 

 She was to leave in the Oryol, and the Giant was 

 trying to make up his mind to accompany her. It 



