ash-tray, and that the table-cloth needed adjustment, and that the chair was out of its place. She is sitting and thinking: "There is no return—no choice! A new life is beginning." She thinks an hour, two hours: "A new life is beginning. How surprised he will be! how happy he will be! A new life is beginning! how happy we are!"
A tinkling bell! she flushed a little, and smiled; steps—the door opens!
"Viéra Pavlovna!"
"My love [drūg moï], I could not live without thee. How long thou didst love me, and said not a word. How noble thou art! How noble he is, Sasha!"
"Tell me, Viérotchka, how it happened."
"I told him that I could not live without thee: on the very next evening he had already gone; I wanted to follow him; I talked all day yesterday about following him, but now thou seest that I have been here a long time."
"But how thin thou hast grown these past two weeks, Viérotchka! How pale thy hands are!"
He kisses her hands.
"Yes, my dear, this has been a hard struggle. Now I can appreciate how much you suffered, so as not to disturb my peace. How could you be so self-possessed as to hide it from me? How thou must have suffered!"
"No, Viérotchka; it was not an easy task."
He still kisses her hands, looking at them, and suddenly she burst into laughter.
"Akh! how inattentive I am to you. You are tired, Sasha; you must be hungry."
She frees herself from him, and runs away.
"Where are you going, Viérotchka?"
But she answers never a word, but goes to the kitchen, and hurriedly, gayly, says to Stepan: "Hurry up; let us have dinner for two! hurry up—where are the plates and things! Let me have them; I will set the table myself, and you bring the victuals. Aleksandr is so tired from his hospital that we must give him something to eat."
She comes back with the plates, and the knives, forks, and spoons rattle on the plates.
Stepan puts the soup on the table. At dinner she relates how it all happened. Stepan comes in with the last dish.
"Stepan, seems to me that we shall not leave you any dinner."
