. . . In her fright she staggered more than ever, and shut her
eyes. . . . He took her by the arm, whirled her right across the yard, and
going into the room where the council had been sitting, pushed her
straight at Kapiton. Tatiana fairly swooned away. . . . Gerasim stood,
looked at her, waved his hand, laughed, and went off, stepping heavily,
to his garret. . . . For the next twenty-four hours he did not come out of
it. The postilion Antipka said afterwards that he saw Gerasim through a
crack in the wall, sitting on his bedstead, his face in his hand. From
time to time he uttered soft regular sounds; he was wailing a dirge,
that is, swaying backwards and forwards with his eyes shut, and shaking
his head as drivers or bargemen do when they chant their melancholy
songs. Antipka could not bear it, and he came away from the crack. When
Gerasim came out of the garret next day, no particular change could be
observed in him. He only seemed, as it were, more morose, and took not
the slightest notice of Tatiana or Kapiton. The same evening, they both
had to appear before their mistress with geese under their arms, and in
a week's time they were married. Even on the day of the wedding Gerasim
showed no change of any sort in his behavior.
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