into the dining-room or anywhere else, fulfilled the command. Pavel Konstantinuitch appeared.
"Go to the khozyáïka and tell her that our daughter has married that devil because you wished her to. Tell her, 'It was against my wife's will.' Tell her that you did so, so as to please her ladyship, because you saw that it was not her ladyship's wish. Tell her, 'My wife was alone to blame, and I only carried out your ladyship's will.' Tell her, 'I myself brought them together.' Do you understand or not?"
"I understand you, Marya Alekséyevna. You are very wise in your plan."
"Well then, go along with you! Even if she is eating her dinner, don't mind; call her right out! Bring her from the dinner-table! so long as she does not know the real truth."
The assurance of Pavel Konstantinuitch's words was so impressive that the khozyáïka would have believed him even if he had not possessed the gift of a persuasive tongue. But the impressiveness of this gift was so great that the khozyáïka would have forgiven Pavel Konstantinuitch, even if there had not been substantial proofs that he had constantly acted against his wife, and purposely brought Viérotchka and Lopukhóf together, in order to block the "ignoble marriage" of Mikhaïl Ivanuitch. But how did they get married? Pavel Konstantinuitch was not stingy in giving her a dowry. He had given Lopukhóf five thousand rubles in cash, and he had given the marriage and all its cost at his own expense. Through him the young people had exchanged little notes. They had met at the house of his colleague, the natchalnik Filantyef, "a married man, your ladyship. Although I am a man of little account, the maiden honor of my daughter, your ladyship, is dear to me. They met in my presence; and although we have not money enough to justify giving a boy of the age of ours a tutor, yet I hired one for an excuse, your ladyship," etc., etc. His wife's unreliability Pavel Konstantinuitch depicted in the darkest colors.
How then could she help being convinced and forgiving Pavel Konstantinuitch? And the main thing—what a great and unexpected piece of happiness! Joy softens the heart. The khozyáïka began her speech of forgiveness with a very long explanation of the thoughts and actions of Marya Alekséyevna, and at first asked Pavel Konstantinuitch to
