The soldier, a peasant from Nijni Novgorod, with a red,pock-marked face, put the paper into the sleeve of his coat,winked to his companion, a broad-shouldered Tchouvash, and thenthe prisoner and the soldiers went to the front entrance, out ofthe prison yard, and through the town up the middle of theroughly-paved street.
Isvostchiks [cabmen], tradespeople, cooks, workmen,and government clerks, stopped and looked curiously at theprisoner; some shook their heads and thought, "This is what evilconduct, conduct unlike ours, leads to." The children stopped andgazed at the robber with frightened looks; but the thought thatthe soldiers were preventing her from doing more harm quietedtheir fears. A peasant, who had sold his charcoal, and had hadsome tea in the town, came up, and, after crossing himself, gaveher a copeck. The prisoner blushed and muttered something; shenoticed that she was attracting everybody's attention, and thatpleased her. The comparatively fresh air also gladdened her, butit was painful to step on the rough stones with the ill-madeprison shoes on her feet, which had become unused to walking.Passing by a corn-dealer's shop, in front of which a few pigeonswere strutting about, unmolested by any one, the prisoner almosttouched a grey-blue bird with her foot; it fluttered up and flewclose to her car, fanning her with its wings. She smiled, thensighed deeply as she remembered her present position. human hair wigs los angeles
CHAPTER II.
MASLOVA'S EARLY LIFE.