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breast of everything—that is, of all his debts and even his passion for Mile. Blanche (he quite lost his head), the General suddenly adopted a nienacing tone and even began shouting and stamping at Granny; cried that she was disgracing their name, had become a scandal to the whole town, and finally . . . finally: "You are shaming the Russian name," cried the General, and he told her that the pohce would be called in I Granny finally drove him from her with a stick (an actual stick). The General and De Grieux consulted once or twice that morning, and the question that agitated them was whether it were not possible in some way to bring in the police, on the plea that an imfortunate but venerable old lady, sinking into her dotage, was gambling away her whole fortune, and so on; whether, in fact, it would be possible to put her under any sort of supervision or restraint. . . . But De Grieux only shrugged his shoulders and laughed in the General's face, as the latter pranced up and down his study talking excitedly. Finally, De Grieux went off with a wave of his hand. In the evening we heard that he had left the hotel altogether, after having been in very earnest and mysterious confabulatioii with Mile. Blanche. As for Mile. Blanche, she had taken her measures early in the morning: she threw the General over completely and would not even admit him to her presence. When the General ran to the Casino in search of her sind met her arm-in-arm with the Prince, neither she nor Madame de Cominges deigned to notice him. The Prince did not bow to him either. Mile Blanche spent that whole day hard at woik upon the Prince, trying to force from him a definite declaration. But alas! she was cruelly deceived in her reckoningi This little catastrophe took place in the evening. It suddeiJy came out that he was as poor as a church mouse, and, what is more, was himself reckoning on borrowing from her on an lOU to try his luck at roulette. Blanche turned him out indignantly and locked herself up in her room.
On the morning of that day I went to Mr. Astley—or, to be more exact, I went in search of Mr. Astley, but could find him nowhere. He was not at home, or in the park, or in the Casino. He was not dining at his hotel that day. It was past four o'clock when I suddenly saw him walking from the railway station towards the H6tel d'Angleterre. He was in a hurry and was very much preoccupied, though it was hard to trace any anxiety or any perturbation whatever in his face. He held out his hand to me cordially, with his habitual exclamation:
"Ahl" but without stopping walked on with rather a rapid step. I attached myself to him, but he managed to answer me in such a way that I did not succeed in even asking him about an3^thing. Moreover, I felt, for some reason, ashamed to begin speaking of PoUna; he did not ask a word about her. I told him about Granny. He listened attentively and seriously and shrugged his shoulders.
"She will gamble away everything," I observed.
"Oh, yes," he answered; "she went in to play just as I was going away, and afterwards I learnt for a fact that she had lost ever57fliing. If there were time I would look in at the Casino, for it is curious."
"Where have you been?" I cried, wondering that I had not asked before.
"I've been in Frankfort."
"On business?"
"Yes, on business."
Well, what more was there for me to ask? I did, however, continue walking beside him, but he suddenly turned into the Hotel des Quatre Saisons, nodded to me and vanished. As I walked home I gradually realised that if I had talked to him for a couple of hours I should have learnt absolutely nothing, because. . . I had nothing to ask him! Yes, that was so, of course! I could not possibly foimulate my question.
AH that day Polina spent walking with the children and their nurse in the park, or sitting at home. She had for a long time past avoided the General, and scarcely spoke to him about anything—about anything serious, at any rate. I had noticed that for a long time past. But knowing what a position the General was in to-day, I imagined that he could hardly pass her over— that is, there could not but be an important conversation about family affairs between them. When, however, I returned to the hotel, after my conversation with Mr. Astley, I met Polina with the children. There was an expression of the most unruffled calm on her face, as though she alone had remained untouched by the family tempest. She nodded in response to my bow. I returned home feeling quite malignant.
I had, of course, avoided seeing her and had seen nothing of her since the incident with the Burmerhelms. There was some affectation and pose in this; but as time went on, I felt more and more genuinely indignant. Even if she did not care for me in the least, she should not, I thought, have trampled on my feelings like that and have received my declarations so
contemptuously. She knew that I really loved her; she admitted me, she allowed me to speak like that! It is true that it had begun rather strangely. Some time before, long ago, in fact, two months before, I began to notice that she wanted to make me her friend, her confidant, and indeed was in a way testing me. But somehow this did not come off then; instead of that there remained the strange relations that existed between us; that is how it was I began to speak to her like that. But if my love repelled her, why did she not directly forbid me to speak of it?
She did not forbid me; indeed she sometimes provoked me to talk of it and . . . and, of course, she did this for fun. I know for certain. I noticed it unmistakably—^it was agreeable to her to Usten and to work me up to a state of misery, to woimd me by some display of the utmost contempt and disregard. And, of course, she knew that I could not exist without her. It was three days since the affair with the Baron and I coidd not endure our separation any longer. When I met her just now near the Casino, my heart throbbed so that I turned pale. But she could not get on without me, either! She needed me and— surely, surely not as a buffoon, a clown?
She had a secret—^that was clear! Her conversation with Granny had stabbed my heart. Why, I had urged her a thousand times to be open with me, and she knew 5iat I was ready to give my life for her. But she had alwaj^ put me off, almost with contempt, or had asked of me, instead of the sacrifice of my Ufe, such pranks as the one with the Baron I
Was not that enough to make one indignant? Could that Frenchman be all the world to her? And Mr. Astley? But at that point the position became utterly incomprehensible—and meanwhile, my God I what agonies I went through.
On getting home, in an access of fury I snatched up my pen and scribbled the following letter to her:
"Polina Alexandrovna, I see clearly that the denotement is at hand which will affect you also. I repeat for the last time: do you need my life or not? If I can be of use in any way whatever, dispose of me as you think fit, and I will meanwhile remain in my room and not go out at all. If you need me, write to me or send for me."
I sealed up this note and sent it off by the corridor attendant,
instructing him to give it into her hands. I expected no answer, but three minutes later the attendant returned with the message that "she sent her greetings".
It was past six when I was summoned to the General.
He was in his study, dressed as though he were on the point of going out. His hat and coat were lying on the sofa. It seemed to me as I went in that he was standing in the middle of the room with his legs wide apart and his head hanging, talking aloud to himself. But as soon as he saw me, he ru^ed at me almost crying out, so that I involuntarily stepped back and was almost running away, but he seized me by both hands and drew me to the sofa; sat down on the sofa himself, made me sit down in an armchair just opposite himself, and, keeping tight hold of my hand, with trembling lips and with tears suddenly glistening on his eyelashes, began speaking in an imploring voice.