“Who does not work shall not drink,” was her motto, and she forced her good-for-nothing husband to wash the dishes. Katerina was offered, with too much politeness, a huge and comfortable armchair. She was treated with tea from the ever boiling samovar. She was drawn into a long conversation about the Czar and her master. But she was in haste, uneasy, and wanted to see the girls. Madame Drakeshkow saw that the business had to be started right away. “You see,” she said to Katerina, “I will have for the auction more than twenty girls, but they are not all here yet. The later they come to me the less I have to feed the slobs. So if you don't find what you are looking for, just keep in touch with me and I am absolutely sure I can serve you. There is nobody who knows so well all the serf girls in town.” (She had only seven at present and did not expect to have more for her auction, which Katerina knew very well.) She got up and went towards the bedroom next door to fetch the girls and presently came back with them, because the girls had been waiting to be called. “Open up those curtains and get some light in the room,” she called to her husband, who did obediently as he was told. After that he sat in a dark corner, looking at the wall.

It was because of his eyes that the room was always kept in semi-darkness. Katerina looked the seven girls over. They stood motionless in a row, in short Russian blouses and cheap, wide, woolen skirts; stockingless and in bare feet. Four of them Katerina dismissed right away, while Madame Drakeshkow praised eagerly the beauty and health of them all. The four, who were much too small or too tall, were very reluctantly sent away by Madame Drakeshkow, who was consoled by the demand of Katerina that the three remaining ones should take off their clothes. Buyers usually scrutinized the naked bodies carefully before purchase. The stripping was quickly done. The blouses had to be unbuttoned, the skirts unhooked, and the girls were nude. They now eyed Katerina, because she might become their future mistress, and although they discovered from her costume and bearing that she herself was only a serf, it was evident that she must be in an important position since she was delegated to buy new servants.