“I shouldn’t have started all this false comedy,” he thought with irritation.  “It goes without saying that I’ve now become the by-word of the entire university.  The devil nudged me!  And even during the day yesterday it wasn’t too late, when she was saying that she was ready to go back.  All I had to do was to give her for a cabby and a little pin money, and she’d have gone, and all would have been fine; and I would be independent now, free, and wouldn’t be undergoing this tormenting and ignominious state of spirits.  But it’s too late to retreat now.  To-morrow it’ll be still later, and the day after to-morrow—­still more.  Having pulled off one fool stunt, it must be immediately put a stop to; but on the other hand, if you don’t do that in time, it draws two others after it, and they—­twenty new ones.  Or, perhaps, it’s not too late now?  Why, she’s silly, undeveloped, and, probably, a hysteric, like the rest of them.  She’s an animal, fit only for stuffing herself and for the bed.  Oh!  The devil!” Lichonin forcefully squeezed his cheeks and his forehead between his hands and shut his eyes.  “And if I had but held out against the common, coarse, physical temptation!  There, you see for yourself, this has happened twice already; and then it’ll go on and on ...”

But side by side with these ran other thoughts, opposed to them: 

“But then, I’m a man.  I am master of my word.  For that which urged me on to this deed was splendid, noble, lofty.  I remember very well that rapture which seized me when my thought transpired into action!  That was a pure, tremendous feeling.  Or was it simply an extravagance of the mind, whipped up by alcohol; the consequence of a sleepless night, smoking, and long, abstract conversations?”

And immediately Liubka would appear before him, appear at a distance, as though out of the misty depths of time; awkward, timid, with her homely and endearing face, which had at once come to seem of infinitely close kinship; long, long familiar, and at the same time unpleasant—­unjustly, without cause.

“Can it be that I’m a coward and a rag?” cried Lichonin inwardly and wrung his hands.  “What am I afraid of, before whom am I embarrassed?  Have I not always prided myself upon being sole master of my life?  Let’s suppose, even, that the phantasy, the extravagance, of making a psychological experiment upon a human soul—­a rare experiment, unsuccessful in ninety-nine percent—­has entered my head.  Is it possible that I must render anybody an account in this, or fear anybody’s opinion?  Lichonin!  Look down upon mankind from above!”

Jennie walked into the room, dishevelled, sleepy, in a night jacket on top of a white underskirt.

“A-a!” she yawned, extending her hand to Lichonin.  “How d’you do, my dear student!  How does your Liubochka feel herself in the new place?  Call me in as a guest some time.  Or are you spending your honeymoon on the quiet?  Without any outside witnesses?”