The voracious geese cried out to her, but she ran past them and settled on a broken stone wall that wound down a slope leading to the Islet River. She shivered and wrapped her arms tightly around her slim frame as tears poured down her cheeks. What did she care what those men thought of her? But Mrs. Zolokov's words had been so embarrassing! Every time the horrible woman joked around about her being from the asylum, she wanted to die! It was humiliating. If ever any young man seemed interested in her--and occasionally one who seemed nice paid her special attention--Mrs. Zolokov would say in a thundering voice, "Leave her alone. You don't want to be mixed up with a mental patient." And that would be the end of that! But sometimes Nadya really did feel that she was going insane. Crazy nightmares plagued her, keeping her in a sleepless fog for many days. Of her past, all she knew from her own experience was that she'd spent time in the Yekaterinburg Mental Asylum.
