CASHMERE HAT : lower, as if she would hide from other eyes the flush of shame which suddenly blazed over her face and neck. 'Andrei Petrovitch, you are kind as an angel,' she said, 'but will he come to say goodbye?' 'Yes, I imagine so; he will be sure to come. He wouldn't like to go away----' 'Tell him, tell him----' But here the poor girl broke down; tears rushed streaming from her eyes, and she ran out of the room. 'So that's how she loves him,' thought Bersenyev, as cashmere hat walked slowly home. 'I didn't expect that; I didn't think she felt so strongly. I am kind, she says:' he pursued his reflections: . . . 'Who can tell what feelings, what impulse drove me to tell Elena all that? It was not kindness; no, not kindness. It was all the accursed desire to
CASHMERE HAT : make sure whether the dagger is really in the wound. I ought to be content. They love each other, and I have been of use to them. . . . The future go-between between science and the Russian public Shubin calls me; it seems as though it had been decreed at my birth cashmere hat I should be a go-between. But if I'm mistaken? No, I'm not mistaken----' It was bitter for Andrei Petrovitch, and he could not turn his mind to Raumer. The next day at two o'clock Insarov arrived at the Stahovs'. As though by express design, there was a visitor in Anna Vassilyevna's drawing-room at the time, the wife of a neighbouring chief-priest, an excellent and worthy woman, though she had had a little unpleasantness with the police, because she thought fit, in the hottest part of the
CASHMERE HAT : day, to bathe in a lake near the road, along which a certain dignified general's family used often to be passing. The presence of an outside person was at first even a relief to Elena, from whose face every trace of colour vanished, directly she heard Insarov's step; but her heart sank at the thought that he might go without a word with her alone. He, too, seemed confused, and avoided meeting her eyes. 'Surely he will not go directly,' thought Elena. Insarov was, in fact, turning to take leave of Anna Vassilyevna; Elena hastily rose and called him aside to cashmere hat window. The priest's wife was surprised, and tried to turn round; but she was so tightly laced that her stays creaked at every movement, and she stayed where she was.
CASHMERE HAT : 'Listen,' said Elena hurriedly; 'I know what you have come for; Andrei Petrovitch told me of your intention, but I beg, I entreat you, do not say good-bye to us to-day, but come here to-morrow rather earlier, at eleven. I must have a few words with you.' Insarov bent his head without speaking. 'I will not keep cashmere hat . . . You promise me?' Again Insarov bowed, but said nothing. 'Lenotchka, come here,' said Anna Vassilyevna, 'look, what a charming reticule.' 'I worked it myself,' observed the priest's wife. Elena came away from the window. Insarov did not stay more than a quarter of an hour at the Stahovs'. Elena watched him secretly. He was restless and ill at ease. As before, he did not know where to look, and he went away strangely and
CASHMERE HAT : suddenly; he seemed to vanish. Slowly passed that day for Elena; still more slowly dragged on the long, long night. Elena sat on her bed, her arms clasping her knees, and her head laid on them; then she walked to the window, pressed her burning forehead against the cold glass, and thought and thought, going over and over the same thoughts till she was exhausted. Her heart seemed turned to stone, she did not feel cashmere hat but the veins in her head throbbed painfully, her hair stifled her, and her lips were dry. 'He will come . . . he did not say good-bye to mamma ... he will not deceive me. . . Can Andrei Petrovitch have been right? It cannot be. . . He didn't promise to come in words. . . Can I have parted
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