"We have here such a store of different things, everything has to be kept clean, in order, and complete as to number." With a self-satisfied air he nodded first at the table, which was set with brilliant crystal and silverware, and then at the sideboard, whose shelves were fairly breaking under the weight of the articles, and which reminded one of the display in a store window.

Smolin noted all these and an ironical smile began to play upon his lips.

Then he glanced at Lubov's face: in his look she caught something friendly, sympathetic to her.

A faint flush covered her cheeks, and she said to herself with timid joy: "Thank God!" The light of the heavy bronze lamp now seemed to flash more brilliantly on the sides of the crystal vases, and it became brighter in the room.
"I like our dear old town!" said Smolin, looking at the girl with a kindly smile, "it is so beautiful, so vigorous; there is cheerfulness about it that inspires one to work.

Its very picturesqueness is somewhat stimulating.