The cousin shrieked that he did not then need to buy the dark girl either. While Katerina zealously defended the money of her master, the blonde girl leaned against the table and the nude, dark one stood motionless with hanging arms in the middle of the room, as if she had nothing to do with the affair. The driver here and there interjected an appeasing word from the door, where he loitered as a witness who is waiting for a handsome commission. The cousin was thin and hard. Katerina was eager to buy and, after a battle, the old housekeeper's hand went into the bodice which covered her enormous bosom and brought to light an ugly leather purse, from which she paid the cousin 90 rubles in glittering gold.

She had gotten the price down from the demanded hundred, but she had to take both girls. No, she was not sending a carriage for them.

She was going to take both with her. She was afraid she might lose her precious discovery. They would start immediately. The girls had nothing to pack. They had no belongings except some woolen kerchiefs and the like, which were quickly made into a bundle. After the dark girl was hurriedly dressed again, Katerina took a quick leave with her purchase, though not without assuring the cousin anew that the price paid had been outrageous. The cousin made the sign of the cross over her former serfs. They in turn, automatically and without feeling, kissed the hem of her dress and soon the three women sat in the carriage. The driver was paid a little distance from Sokolow's house and received what he demanded. It is quite sure that with this money and the commission from his cousin, he was senselessly drunk for several days. Starting toward the palace, Katerina asked the dark girl what her name was. “Grushenka,” answered the girl readily. That was the first word she spoke after she had become one of the uncounted souls of Prince Alexey Sokolow. She did not then know the name of her new master.