“I don’t know of anything in particular, thank you.”

The inspector came up, and without waiting for a remark from him Nekhludoff took leave, and went out with peace, joy, and love towards everybody in his heart such as he had never felt before.  The certainty that no action of Maslova could change his love for her filled him with joy and raised him to a level which he had never before attained.  Let her intrigue with the medical assistant; that was her business.  He loved her not for his own but for her sake and for God’s.

And this intrigue, for which Maslova was turned out of the hospital, and of which Nekhludoff believed she was really guilty, consisted of the following: 

Maslova was sent by the head nurse to get some herb tea from the dispensary at the end of the corridor, and there, all alone, she found the medical assistant, a tall man, with a blotchy face, who had for a long time been bothering her.  In trying to get away from him Maslova gave him such a push that he knocked his head against a shelf, from which two bottles fell and broke.  The head doctor, who was passing at that moment, heard the sound of breaking glass, and saw Maslova run out, quite red, and shouted to her: 

“Ah, my good woman, if you start intriguing here, I’ll send you about your business.  What is the meaning of it?” he went on, addressing the medical assistant, and looking at him over his spectacles.

The assistant smiled, and began to justify himself.  The doctor gave no heed to him, but, lifting his head so that he now looked through his spectacles, he entered the ward.  He told the inspector the same day to send another more sedate assistant-nurse in Maslova’s place.  And this was her “intrigue” with the medical assistant.

Being turned out for a love intrigue was particularly painful to Maslova, because the relations with men, which had long been repulsive to her, had become specially disgusting after meeting Nekhludoff.  The thought that, judging her by her past and present position, every man, the blotchy assistant among them, considered he had a right to offend her, and was surprised at her refusal, hurt her deeply, and made her pity herself and brought tears to her eyes.

When she went out to Nekhludoff this time she wished to clear herself of the false charge which she knew he would certainly have heard about.  But when she began to justify herself she felt he did not believe her, and that her excuses would only strengthen his suspicions; tears choked her, and she was silent.

Maslova still thought and continued to persuade herself that she had never forgiven him, and hated him, as she told him at their second interview, but in reality she loved him again, and loved him so that she did all he wished her to do; left off drinking, smoking, coquetting, and entered the hospital because she knew he wished it.  And if every time he reminded her of it, she refused so decidedly to accept his sacrifice and marry him, it was because she liked repeating the proud words she had once uttered, and because she knew that a marriage with her would be a misfortune for him.