Pagina 487 de 1294

He had spoken the truth, moreover, when he blurted out in his

drunken talk on the stairs that Praskovya Pavlovna, Raskolnikov's

eccentric landlady, would be jealous of Pulcheria Alexandrovna as

well as of Avdotya Romanovna on his account. Although Pulcheria

Alexandrovna was forty-three, her face still retained traces of

her former beauty; she looked much younger than her age, indeed,

which is almost always the case with women who retain serenity of

spirit, sensitiveness and pure sincere warmth of heart to old

age. We may add in parenthesis that to preserve all this is the

only means of retaining beauty to old age. Her hair had begun to

grow grey and thin, there had long been little crow's foot

wrinkles round her eyes, her cheeks were hollow and sunken from

anxiety and grief, and yet it was a handsome face. She was Dounia

over again, twenty years older, but without the projecting

underlip.