We
entered the room where we had been earlier in the afternoon; it seemed
now to be full of people, I saw now quite clearly, although just
before the whole world had seemed to be dark. I saw our two soldiers
standing back by the door; a doctor, whose face I did not know, a very
corpulent man, was on his knees on the floor--some sanitars were in a
group by the window. In the middle of the room lay Marie Ivanovna on a
stretcher. Even as I entered the stout doctor rose, shaking his head.
I had only that one glimpse of her face on my entry, because, at the
shake of the doctor's head, a sanitar stepped forward and covered her
with a cloth. But I shall see her face as it was until I die. Her eyes
were closed, she seemed very peaceful.... But I cannot write of it,
even now....
My business here is simply with facts, and I must be forgiven if now I
am brief in my account.
The room was just as it had been earlier in the afternoon; I saw the
sardine-tin, the dirty plate that had a little cloud of flies upon it;
the room seemed under the evening sun full of gold dust.
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