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"How is that? Eh? It is simply terrible, I tell you."
"No good!" sighed Yefim. "As they say--hunger will break through
stone walls. The stomach, you see, has its own laws."
This story called forth in Foma a great incomprehensible interest in
the fate of the girl, and the youth hastened to enquire of the
receiver:
"Well, did the man buy her?"
"Of course not!" exclaimed the receiver, reproachfully.
"Well, and what became of her?"
"Some good people took pity on her--and provided for her."
"A-h!" drawled Foma, and suddenly he said firmly and angrily: "I
would have given that peasant such a thrashing! I would have broken
his head!" And he showed the receiver his big tightly-clenched fist.
"Eh! What for?" cried the receiver in a sickly, loud voice, tearing
his spectacles from his eyes. "You do not understand the motive."
"I do understand it!" said Foma, with an obstinate shake of his head.
"But what could he do? It came to his mind."
"How can one allow himself to sell a human being?"
"Ah! It is brutal, I agree with you.


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