— not without some diffident contemplation of the blank left by the middle finger and of the ink-stained edges round the vacant space.

“If only Natalia Savishna had been here,” I reflected, “we should certainly have found some gloves. I can’t go downstairs in this condition. Yet, if they ask me why I am not dancing, what am I to say? However, I can’t remain here either, or they will be sending upstairs to fetch me. What on earth am I to do?” and I wrung my hands.

“What are you up to here?” asked Woloda as he burst into the room. “Go and engage a partner. The dancing will be beginning directly.”

“Woloda,” I said despairingly, as I showed him my hand with two fingers thrust into a single finger of the dirty glove,