“No telegram has come?” she asked.

“No, madam.”

“Ask the porter; perhaps there is a telegram.  And don’t leave the house,” she called after me.  “I am afraid to be left alone.”

After that I had to run down almost every hour to ask the porter whether a telegram had come.  I must own it was a dreadful time!  To avoid seeing Polya, Zinaida Fyodorovna dined and had tea in her own room; it was here that she slept, too, on a short sofa like a half-moon, and she made her own bed.  For the first days I took the telegrams; but, getting no answer, she lost her faith in me and began telegraphing herself.  Looking at her, I, too, began impatiently hoping for a telegram.  I hoped he would contrive some deception, would make arrangements, for instance, that a telegram should be sent to her from some station.  If he were too much engrossed with cards or had been attracted by some other woman, I thought that both Gruzin and Kukushkin would remind him of us.  But our expectations were vain.  Five times a day I would go in to Zinaida Fyodorovna, intending to tell her the truth, But her eyes looked piteous as a fawn’s, her shoulders seemed to droop, her lips were moving, and I went away again without saying a word.  Pity and sympathy seemed to rob me of all manliness.  Polya, as cheerful and well satisfied with herself as though nothing had happened, was tidying the master’s study and the bedroom, rummaging in the cupboards, and making the crockery jingle, and when she passed Zinaida Fyodorovna’s door, she hummed something and coughed.  She was pleased that her mistress was hiding from her.  In the evening she would go out somewhere, and rang at two or three o’clock in the morning, and I had to open the door to her and listen to remarks about my cough.  Immediately afterwards I would hear another ring; I would run to the room next to the study, and Zinaida Fyodorovna, putting her head out of the door, would ask, “Who was it rung?” while she looked at my hands to see whether I had a telegram.

When at last on Saturday the bell rang below and she heard the familiar voice on the stairs, she was so delighted that she broke into sobs.  She rushed to meet him, embraced him, kissed him on the breast and sleeves, said something one could not understand.  The hall porter brought up the portmanteaus; Polya’s cheerful voice was heard.  It was as though some one had come home for the holidays.

“Why didn’t you wire?” asked Zinaida Fyodorovna, breathless with joy.  “Why was it?  I have been in misery; I don’t know how I’ve lived through it. . . .  Oh, my God!”

“It was very simple!  I returned with the senator to Moscow the very first day, and didn’t get your telegrams,” said Orlov.  “After dinner, my love, I’ll give you a full account of my doings, but now I must sleep and sleep. . . .  I am worn out with the journey.”

It was evident that he had not slept all night; he had probably been playing cards and drinking freely.  Zinaida Fyodorovna put him to bed, and we all walked about on tiptoe all that day.  The dinner went off quite satisfactorily, but when they went into the study and had coffee the explanation began.  Zinaida Fyodorovna began talking of something rapidly in a low voice; she spoke in French, and her words flowed like a stream.  Then I heard a loud sigh from Orlov, and his voice.