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With hurried deference, Luise Ivanovna fell to curtsying in all

directions, and so curtsied herself to the door. But at the door,

she stumbled backwards against a good-looking officer with a

fresh, open face and splendid thick fair whiskers. This was the

superintendent of the district himself, Nikodim Fomitch. Luise

Ivanovna made haste to curtsy almost to the ground, and with

mincing little steps, she fluttered out of the office.

"Again thunder and lightning--a hurricane!" said Nikodim Fomitch

to Ilya Petrovitch in a civil and friendly tone. "You are aroused

again, you are fuming again! I heard it on the stairs!"