The Duel and Other Stories

dyezhda Fyodorovna, and without greeting her or taking off her hat, seized

ed doctor told my Nikodim Alexandritch yesterday that your h

is dead," answered N

ome compensation; your husband was no doubt a noble, wonderfu

as though little needles were jumping up and down under her skin; sh

on with Ivan Andreitch. It's enchanting. I am trembling with joy, I can find no words. My dear, I will give you away. . . . Nikodim Alexandrit

," said Nadyezhda Fyodor

y dear. You have thou

laughing. "What should we be married for? I see no n

" cried Marya Konstan

what are y

y better. On the contrary, it will make t

antinovna, stepping back and flinging up her hands. "You are t

an? I have not lived yet, and

hool and had been married to a man she did not love; then she had thrown in her lot with Laevsky, and had s

thought, but remembering Kirilin a

an Andreitch begged me to on his

te in silence, grave and mournful, gazing fixed

t's my duty to tell you that from this day all is over between us, and, in spite of my

face began quivering again; it assumed a soft almond-oily expression. She held out both hands t

o be a mother or an elder sister to you!

d were standing before her. She impulsively embraced Marya Konstantinovna and pressed her face to her shoulder. Both of them s

antinovna, "I will tell you some h

ake, for God

y husband was opposed to our making his acquaintance, but I talked him over . . . persuaded him. . . . We began receiving Ivan Andreitch, and with him, of course, you. If we had not, he would have been insulted. I have a daughter, a son. . . . You understand the tender mind, the pure heart of childhood . . . 'who so offendeth one of these little ones.' . . . I received you into my h

Nadyezhda Fyodorovna

have I do

uch is given and from her much will be required. Oh, my dear, if she had been more foolish or weaker than man on that side, God would not have entrusted her with the education of boys and girls. And then, my dear, you entered on the path of vice, forgetting all modesty; any other woman in your place would have hidden herself from people, would have sat shut up at home, and would only have been seen in the temple of God, pale, dressed all in black and weeping, and every one would have said in genuine compassion: 'O Lord, this erring angel is coming back again to Thee . . . .' But you, my dear, have forgott

he highest opinion of her costumes, left o

n and his boots, poor fellow! one can see he has no one at home to look after him. And he is always hungry, my darling, and of course, if there is no one at home to think of the samovar and the coffee, one is forced to spend half one's salary at the pavilion. And it's simply awful, awful in your home! No one else in the town has flies, but there's no getting rid of them in your rooms: all the plates and dishes are black with them. If you look at the windows and the chairs, there's nothing but dust, dead flies, and glass

Fyodorovna sobbed. "If only I w

f in store for you in the future! A solitary old age, ill-health; and then you will have to answer at the dread judgment seat. . . It's

said Nadyezhda Fyodorov

hy

ble. Oh, if o

curred to her of cancelling her debt for three hundred; it had amused her very much, and she returned home late in the evening feeling that she had sold herself and was irrevocably lo

said. "Ivan Andreitch m

he

Russ

live there? Why,

, or . . . or I will o

I will leave you now, and you calm yourself and think things over, and to-morrow come and s

ed up in the kitchen. Still crying, Nadyezhda Fyodorovna went into the bedroom and lay down on the bed. She began to be very feverish. She undressed without ge

recognised her as herself. "I'll pay it back. It would be stupid to imagine that it was for money I . . . I will go away an

night when La

dyezhda Fyodorovna said to hi

o-morrow is Wednesday; the steamer goes and I am not going

odorovna kne

did I?" she asked, smiling and

have to send for the do

o sl

dorovna, she had begun to raise in him pity and a sense of guilt; he felt a little ashamed in her presence, as though

t the picnic and said

e, for Go

study, lay down, and for a lon

shoulders and decorations on his breast, came out of the bedroom after feeling Nadyezhda Fyodorovna's pul

terror, of extreme uneasine

nothing dangerous," said Samo

sky frowned impatiently.

hispered, looking round at the d

ve me! No one has anyt

lect by five- and by

in all. To-day I'll s

patie

. "By all that's sacred, get it by Saturday! If I don't get away by Saturday, n

re was positively a breaking note in his throat. "I've been stripped of ever

get it by S

ll

w! So that the money may be i

mati and tincture of rhubarb, tinctur? gentian?, aqu? foeniculi -all