A House of Gentlefolk eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 229 pages of information about A House of Gentlefolk.

A House of Gentlefolk eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 229 pages of information about A House of Gentlefolk.
what was to be done.  So she had grown up tranquilly and restfully till she had reached the age of nineteen.  She was very charming, without being aware of it herself.  Her every movement was full of spontaneous, somewhat awkward gracefulness; her voice had the silvery ring of untouched youth, the least feeling of pleasure called forth an enchanting smile on her lips, and added a deep light and a kind of mystic sweetness to her kindling eyes.  Penetrated through and through by a sense of duty, by the dread of hurting any one whatever, with a kind and tender heart, she had loved all men, and no one in particular; God only she had! loved passionately, timidly, and tenderly.  Lavretsky was the first to break in upon her peaceful inner life.

Such was Lisa.

Chapter XXXVI

On the following day at twelve o’clock, Lavretsky set off to the Kalitins.  On the way he met Panshin, who galloped past him on horseback, his hat pulled down to his very eyebrows.  At the Kalitins’, Lavretsky was not admitted for the first time since he had been acquainted with them.  Marya Dmitrievna was “resting,” so the footman informed him; her excellency had a headache.  Marfa Timofyevna and Lisaveta Mihalovna were not at home.  Lavretsky walked round the garden in the faint hope of meeting Lisa, but he saw no one.  He came back two hours later and received the same answer, accompanied by a rather dubious look from the footman.  Lavretsky thought it would be unseemly to call for a third time the same day, and he decided to drive over to Vassilyevskoe, where he had business moreover.  On the road he made various plans for the future, each better than the last; but he was overtaken by a melancholy mood when he reached his aunt’s little village.  He fell into conversation! with Anton; the old man, as if purposely, seemed full of cheerless fancies.  He told Lavretsky how, at her death, Glafira Petrovna had bitten her own arm, and after a brief pause, added with a sigh:  “Every man, dear master, is destined to devour himself.”  It was late when Lavretsky set off on the way back.  He was haunted by the music of the day before, and Lisa’s image returned to him in all its sweet distinctness; he mused with melting tenderness over the thought that she loved him, and reached his little house in the town, soothed and happy.

The first thing that struck him as he went into the entrance hall was a scent of patchouli, always distasteful to him; there were some high travelling-trunks standing there.  The face of his groom, who ran out to meet him, seemed strange to him.  Not stopping to analyse his impressions, he crossed the threshold of the drawing room....  On his entrance there rose from the sofa a lady in a black silk dress with flounces, who, raising a cambric handkerchief to her pale face, made a few paces forward, bent her carefully dressed, perfumed head, and fell at his feet....  Then, only, he recognised her:  this lady was his wife!

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A House of Gentlefolk from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.