"The sixteenth of August—that is on the second day after our visit to the island; no, it was exactly the fifteenth," thinks Viéra Pavlovna: "all the time the mílenki spoke with that Rakhmétof,[1] or as they called him out of jest, the rigorist, and his comrades, but he spent hardly quarter of an hour with me.—That is not true; he spent nearly half an hour with me," thinks Viéra Pavlovna, "besides the time when we were sitting together in the boat."
"The seventeenth of August; yesterday the students spent a whole evening with us."—Yes, it was on the evening when the mílenki was taken sick—Mílenki talked with them the whole evening long. Why did he spend so much time with them and so little with me? He is not working all the time; he himself says that he is not working all the time; that without rest it is impossible to work; that he takes a great deal of rest, that he thinks about nothing else except taking a rest; why does he think by himself and not with me?"
"Turn over one leaf more."
"July of the present year and every month of the present year, and until mílenki became sick, then last year and before that too. Five days ago the students called on us, and yesterday too. I carried on with them, it was so gay. To-morrow or day after to-morrow they will call again, and again it will be gay."
"Is that all?"
"That is all!"
"No, read further."
Again appears the hand, touches the page, and again from under the hand come new lines; and again against her will Viéra Pavlovna is reading them:—
"The beginning of the present year, especially at the end of spring. Yes, it used to be gay with these students, but that was all. But now I often think it was childish nonsense; such nonsense will amuse me for a long time yet. Probably even when I have come to be an old woman, when I myself will not be of the age for playing, I shall delight in the youthful games which will remind me of my childhood; for even now I look upon the students as younger brothers, but I should not like to become a Viérotchka always when I
- ↑ As has been said before, nearly all the characters of this story are supposed to be drawn from real life. Rakhmétof, whom we shall meet again further on, is considered by many Russians to be a true picture of Karakózof, who in 1866 attempted to assassinate the Emperor Alexander II.
