“I remember now with what hungry interest I began to watch the lives of other people⁠—interest that I had never felt before! I used to wait for Colia’s arrival impatiently, for I was so ill myself, then, that I could not leave the house. I so threw myself into every little detail of news, and took so much interest in every report and rumour, that I believe I became a regular gossip! I could not understand, among other things, how all these people⁠—with so much life in and before them⁠—do not become

rich