When you said, 'Be gone!' I
got up and went away. And your words made me feel sad, very sad.
There was a time, I remembered, when they caressed me and fondled
me unceasingly, without growing tired; for a single kind smile
they used to do for me anything I pleased. I recalled all this
and began to cry! I felt sorry for my youth, for I am now thirty
years old, the last days for a woman! Eh, Foma Ignatyevich!" she
exclaimed, lifting her voice louder, and reiterating the rhythm
of her harmonious speech, whose accents rose and fell in unison
with the melodious murmuring of the water.
"Listen to me--preserve your youth! There is nothing in the world
better than that. There is nothing more precious than youth. With
youth, as with gold, you can accomplish anything you please. Live
so that you shall have in old age something to remind you of your
youth. Here I recalled myself, and though I cried, yet my heart
blazed up at the very recollection of my past life. And again I
was young, as though I drank of the water of life! My sweet child I'll
have a good time with you, if I please you, we'll enjoy ourselves
as much as we can.
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