The very details, the mere thought of which reduced her husband to terror, immediately engaged her attention.

She sent for the doctor, sent to the chemist's, set the maid who had come with her and Marya Nikolaevna to sweep and dust and scrub; she herself washed up something, washed out something else, laid something under the quilt.

Something was by her directions brought into the sick-room, something else was carried out.