Simanovsky, who had gotten into trouble, said a few general consolatory words in a judicious bass, such as the noble fathers used in olden comedies, and led his ladies off.

But he was fated to play one more very shameful, distressing, and final role in the free life of Liubka.  She had already complained to Lichonin for a long time that the presence of Simanovsky was oppressive to her; but Lichonin paid no attention to womanish trifles:  the vacuous, fictitious, wordy hypnosis of this man of commands was strong within him.  There are influences, to get rid of which is difficult, almost impossible.  On the other hand, he was already for a long time feeling the burden of co-habitation with Liubka.  Frequently he thought to himself:  “She is spoiling my life; I am growing common, foolish; I have become dissolved in fool benevolence; it will end up in my marrying her, entering the excise or the assay office, or getting in among pedagogues; I’ll be taking bribes, will gossip, and become an abominable provincial morel.  And where are my dreams of the power of thought, the beauty of life, of love and deeds for all humanity?” he would say, at times even aloud, and pull his hair.  And for that reason, instead of attentively going into Liubka’s complaints, he would lose his temper, yell, stamp his feet, and the patient, meek Liubka would grow quiet and retire into the kitchen, to have a good cry there.

Now more and more frequently, after family quarrels, in the minutes of reconciliation he would say to Liubka: 

“My dear Liuba, you and I do not suit each other, comprehend that.  Look:  here are a hundred roubles for you, ride home.  Your relatives will receive you as their own.  Live there a while, look around you.  I will come for you after half a year; you’ll have become rested, and, of course, all that’s filthy, nasty, that has been grafted upon you by the city, will go away, will die off.  And you’ll begin a new life independently, without any assistance, alone and proud!”

But then, can anything be done with a woman who has come to love for the first, and, of course, as it seems to her, for the last time?  Can she be convinced of the necessity for parting?  Does logic exist for her?

Always reverent before the firmness of the words and decisions of Simanovsky, Lichonin, however, surmised and by instinct understood his real relation to Liubka; and in his desire to free himself, to shake off a chance load beyond his strength, he would catch himself in a nasty little thought:  “She pleases Simanovsky; and as for her, isn’t it all the same if it’s he or I or a third?  Guess I’ll make a clean breast of it, explain things to him and yield Liubka up to him like a comrade.  But then, the fool won’t go.  Will raise a rumpus.”

“Or just to come upon the two of them together, somehow,” he would ponder further, “in some decisive pose... to raise a noise, make a row...  A noble gesture... a little money and... a getaway.”