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"Well, nothing very special. I only learned that the marriage,

which only failed to take place through the girl's death, was not

at all to Praskovya Pavlovna's liking. They say, too, the girl

was not at all pretty, in fact I am told positively ugly... and

such an invalid... and queer. But she seems to have had some good

qualities. She must have had some good qualities or it's quite

inexplicable.... She had no money either and he wouldn't have

considered her money.... But it's always difficult to judge in

such matters."

"I am sure she was a good girl," Avdotya Romanovna observed

briefly.