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Maria Dmitrievna admiringly agreed with him. "What a clever man to have talking in my house!" she thought. Liza kept silence, leaning back in the recess of the window. Lavretsky kept silence too. Marfa Timofeevna, who was playing cards in a corner with her friend, grumbled something to herself. Panshine walked up and down the room, speaking well, but with a sort of suppressed malice.
The old man muttered something to himself, but Panshine continued in German, pronouncing the words very badly "Lizaveta Mikhailovna has shown me the sacred cantata which you have dedicated to her a very beautiful piece! I beg you will not suppose I am unable to appreciate serious music. Quite the reverse. It is sometimes tedious; but, on the other hand, it is extremely edifying."
"I want to have a little more chat with you," she said, "about our poor Fedia, and to ask for your advice." Gedeonovsky smiled and bowed, took up with two fingers his hat, on the brim of which his gloves were neatly laid out, and retired with Maria Dmitrievna. Panshine and Eliza remained in the room. She fetched the sonata, and spread it out. Both sat down to the piano in silence.
Lavretsky often blamed himself for having shown Liza the newspaper he had received; he could not help being conscious that there was something in his state of feeling which must be repugnant to a very delicate mind. He supposed, moreover, that the change which had taken place in Liza arose from a struggle with herself, from her doubt as to what answer she should give to Panshine.
He ended by offering to play at piquet with Maria Dmitrievna. "What! on such an evening as this?" she feebly objected; but then she ordered the cards to be brought. Panshine noisily tore open a new pack; and Liza and Lavretsky, as if by mutual consent, both rose from their seats and placed themselves near Marfa Timofeevna.
Marfa Timofeevna had tried to prevent her going but in vain. Liza was resolved to endure her trial to the end. Varvara Pavlovna advanced to meet her, attended by Panshine, whose face again wore its former diplomatic expression. "How are you now?" asked Varvara. "I am better now, thank you," replied Liza. "We have been passing the time with a little music," said Panshine.
Panshine appeared in a black dress-coat, buttoned all the way up, and wearing a high English shirt-collar. "It was painful for me to obey; but, you see, I have come;" that was what was expressed by his serious face, evidently just shaved for the occasion. "Why, Valdemar!" exclaimed Maria Dmitrievna, "you used always to come in without being announced."
Panshine made no other reply than a look, and bowed politely to Maria Dmitrievna, but did not kiss her hand. She introduced him to Varvara Pavlovna. He drew back a pace, bowed to her with the same politeness and with an added expression of respectful grace, and then took a seat at the card-table. The game soon came to an end.
She would chat for hours, without thinking anything of it, with the chief of the village on her mother's estate, when he happened to come into town, and talk with him as if he were her equal, without any signs of seigneurial condescension. All this Lavretsky knew well. For his own part, he never would have cared to reply to Panshine; it was only for Liza's sake that he spoke.
Liza wished to reply, but she could not utter a single word. Not that she had decided on being "hasty" but because her heart beat too strongly, and a feeling resembling that of fear impeded her breathing. As Lavretsky was leaving the Kalitines' house he met Panshine, with whom he exchanged a cold greeting. Then he went home and shut himself up in his room.
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