“Madam, she’s not at all as you suppose. I am an insignificant link. Oh, madam, wealthy are your mansions, but poor is the dwelling of Marya Anonyma, my sister, whose maiden name was Lebyadkin, but whom we’ll call Anonyma for the time, only for the time , madam, for God Himself will not suffer it forever. Madam, you gave her ten roubles and she took it, because it was from you , madam! Do you hear, madam? From no one else in the world would this Marya Anonyma take it, or her grandfather, the officer killed in the Caucasus before the very eyes of Yermolov, would turn in his grave. But from you, madam, from you she will take anything. But with one hand she takes it, and with the other she holds out to you twenty roubles by way of subscription to one of the benevolent committees in Petersburg and Moscow, of which you are a member⁠ ⁠… for you published yourself, madam, in the Moscow News , that you are ready to receive subscriptions in our town, and that anyone may subscribe.⁠ ⁠…”