How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
Now, when the silken insides of her handbag were in tatters (at least there was always the hope of finding a stray coin); now, when she was so tired; now, when putting on her only pair of shoes she had to force herself not to think of their soles, just as when, swallowing her pride, she entered the tobacconist's, she forbade herself to think of how much she already owed there; now that there was no longer the least hope of returning to Russia, and hatred had become so habitual that it almost ceased to be a sin [...](11)
This is a rare moment where the narrator doesn't make us laugh and we are just immersed in the sadness of Olga's situation. We kind of want to give her a hug.
Quote #5
[...] Now that the sun was getting behind the chimney, Olga would occasionally be tormented by the luxury of certain advertisements, written in the saliva of Tantalus, imagining herself wealthy, wearing that dress, sketched with the aid of three or four insolent lines, on that ship-deck, under that palm tree, at the balustrade of that white terrace. And then there was also another thing or two that she missed. (11)
Here Nabokov is referencing the Greek myth of Tantalus. He was a guy who was punished by forcing him to stand in a pool of water underneath a fruit tree. Even though he was hungry and thirsty, he could never reach the fruit tree and the water always receded when he tried to drink. So they're saying that no matter how hard Olga tries, she can never reach her dream of going back to Russia.
Quote #6
"No, my dear, I'm no longer that age," answered Olga, "and besides.…" She added a little detail and Vera burst out laughing, letting her parcels sink almost to the ground. "No, seriously," said Olga, with a smile. (12)
Vera's response to Olga's problems seems just like the narrator's, doesn't it? She laughs in her face, just like the narrator seems to want us to laugh.