the old man had brought the slim, delicate, shy, timid, dreamy, and sad girl of eighteen from the chief town of the province, and much had happened since then. Little was known of the girl’s history in the town and that little was vague. Nothing more had been learnt during the last four years, even after many persons had become interested in the beautiful young woman into whom Agrafena Alexandrovna had meanwhile developed. There were rumors that she had been at seventeen betrayed by someone, some sort of officer, and immediately afterwards abandoned by him. The officer had gone away and afterwards married, while Grushenka had been left in poverty and disgrace. It was said, however, that though Grushenka had been raised from destitution by the old man, Samsonov, she came of a respectable family belonging to the clerical class, that she was the daughter of a deacon or something of the sort.
Y ahora, al cabo de cuatro años, la sensible, doliente y patética huerfanita se había convertido en una belleza rolliza y sonrosada de tipo ruso, una mujer de carácter audaz y decidido, orgullosa e insolente. Tenía buena cabeza para los negocios, era adquisitiva, ahorrativa y prudente, y por las buenas o por las malas se había las ingeniado, según se decía, para amasar una pequeña fortuna. Solo había un punto en el que todos coincidían: no era fácil acercarse a Grushenka y, aparte de su anciano protector, no había habido un solo hombre que pudiera presumir de sus favores durante esos cuatro años. * Era un hecho indiscutible, pues habían sido bastantes, sobre todo en los últimos dos años, los que habían intentado obtener tales favores. * Pero todos sus esfuerzos habían sido en vano y algunos de