'But you have trustworthy information?'
'Trustworthy . . . I have it at first-hand! — I made the acquaintance of her family in Kazan. But, my dear boy . . . this news seems to be upsetting you? Why, I recollect you didn't care for Clara at one time? You were wrong, though! She was a marvellous girl — only what a temper! I was terribly broken-hearted about her!'
Aratov did not utter a word, he dropped into a chair, and after a brief pause, asked Kupfer to tell him . . . he stammered.
'What?' inquired Kupfer.
'Oh . . . everything,' Aratov answered brokenly, 'all about her family . . . and the rest of it. Everything you know!'
'Why, does it interest you? By all means!' And Kupfer, whose face showed no traces of his having been so terribly broken-hearted about Clara, began his story.
From his account Aratov learnt that Clara Militch's real name was Katerina Milovidov; that her father, now dead, had held the post of drawing-master in a school in Kazan, had painted bad portraits and holy pictures of the regulation type; that he had besides had the character of being a drunkard and a domestic tyrant; that he had left behind him, first a widow, of a shopkeeper's family, a quite stupid
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