Litvinov muttered between his teeth, 'but I should like to know, do you approve of my intention?'
'To go away?'
'Yes.'
Irina continued to look away.
'At the first moment, your intention struck me as premature. . . . but now I have thought over what you have said . . . and if you are really not mistaken, then I suppose that you ought to go away. It will be better so . . better for us both.'
Irina's voice had grown lower and lower, and her words too came more and more slowly.
'General Ratmirov, certainly, might notice,' Litvinov was beginning. . . .
Irina's eyes dropped again, and something strange quivered about her lips, quivered and died away.
'No; you did not understand me,' she interrupted him. 'I was not thinking of my husband. Why should I? And there is nothing to notice. But I repeat, separation is necessary for us both.'
Litvinov picked up his hat, which had fallen on the ground.
'Everything is over,' he thought, ' I must go. And so it only remains for me to say good-bye to you, Irina Pavlovna,' he said aloud, and
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