“‘You and I did not set fire to the place,’ he said softly, ’and you see we are not condemned, and not in prison.’

“And both husband and wife tried to make me eat and drink as much as possible.  From some trifling details, from the way they made the coffee together, for instance, and from the way they understood each other at half a word, I could gather that they lived in harmony and comfort, and that they were glad of a visitor.  After dinner they played a duet on the piano; then it got dark, and I went home.  That was at the beginning of spring.

“After that I spent the whole summer at Sofino without a break, and I had no time to think of the town, either, but the memory of the graceful fair-haired woman remained in my mind all those days; I did not think of her, but it was as though her light shadow were lying on my heart.

“In the late autumn there was a theatrical performance for some charitable object in the town.  I went into the governor’s box (I was invited to go there in the interval); I looked, and there was Anna Alexyevna sitting beside the governor’s wife; and again the same irresistible, thrilling impression of beauty and sweet, caressing eyes, and again the same feeling of nearness.  We sat side by side, then went to the foyer.

“‘You’ve grown thinner,’ she said; ‘have you been ill?’

“’Yes, I’ve had rheumatism in my shoulder, and in rainy weather I can’t sleep.’

“’You look dispirited.  In the spring, when you came to dinner, you were younger, more confident.  You were full of eagerness, and talked a great deal then; you were very interesting, and I really must confess I was a little carried away by you.  For some reason you often came back to my memory during the summer, and when I was getting ready for the theatre today I thought I should see you.’

“And she laughed.

“‘But you look dispirited today,’ she repeated; ’it makes you seem older.’

“The next day I lunched at the Luganovitchs’.  After lunch they drove out to their summer villa, in order to make arrangements there for the winter, and I went with them.  I returned with them to the town, and at midnight drank tea with them in quiet domestic surroundings, while the fire glowed, and the young mother kept going to see if her baby girl was asleep.  And after that, every time I went to town I never failed to visit the Luganovitchs.  They grew used to me, and I grew used to them.  As a rule I went in unannounced, as though I were one of the family.

“‘Who is there?’ I would hear from a faraway room, in the drawling voice that seemed to me so lovely.

“‘It is Pavel Konstantinovitch,’ answered the maid or the nurs e.

“Anna Alexyevna would come out to me with an anxious face, and would ask every time: 

“‘Why is it so long since you have been?  Has anything happened?’