Natasha swallowed hard. She tried to make a joke of it:

"So it's payment on delivery?"

"Ah, my little businesswoman," Darya said ironically. "Who's going to love you, so practical and clever? A woman should always have some foolishness in her… ah… On delivery. Delivery of all three items."

"How much?"

"Five."

"You want five?" Natasha burst out and broke off. "I thought it was a lot cheaper than that!"

"If you just want to get your husband back, that will be cheaper. But then after a while, he'll go away again. I'm offering you real help, a certain cure."

"I want to do it," Natasha said with a nod. She had the feeling that what was happening was slightly unreal. So that was all: Just a clap of the hands and the unborn child would be gone? Another clap and she would bear her beloved idiot a child of her own?

"Do you take the sin on yourself?" the seer asked insistently.

"What sin is there in that?" Natasha retorted, her irritation suddenly breaking through. "Every woman's committed that sin at least once!- Perhaps there isn't anything there anyway!"

The seer pondered, as if she were listening to something. She nodded her head.

"There is… And I think it's definitely a daughter."

"I'll take it," said Natasha, still in an irritated voice. "I'll take all the sins on myself, any you like. Do we have a deal?"

The seer looked at her sternly, disapprovingly.

"That's not right, my daughter… About all the sins. Who knows what sins I might hang on you? My own, or somebody else's… then afterward you would have to answer to God."

"We'll sort it out somehow."

Darya sighed: "Oh, these young people are so foolish. Do you think He wastes his time rummaging about in people's sins? Every sin leaves its own trace, and the judgment matches the traces… All right, don't be afraid. I won't put anybody else's sins down to you."