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He has written a little comedy in the style of a "proverb;" and as every one who writes now constantly brings on the stage some real person or some actual fact he has introduced a coquette into it, and he reads it confidentially to a few ladies who are very kind to him. But he has never married, although he has had many excellent opportunities for doing so. For that Varvara Pavlovna is to blame.
At this moment the page announced Gedeonovsky's arrival, and the old gossip came in smiling, and bowing profoundly. Maria Dmitrievna introduced him to her visitor. At first he was somewhat abashed, but Varvara Pavlovna behaved to him with such coquettish respectfulness that his ears soon began to tingle, and amiable speeches and gossiping stories began to flow uninterruptedly from his lips.
She sat as though she were of stone, yellow and pale, her lips compressed, and ate nothing. Lisa seemed calm; and in reality, her heart was more at rest, a strange apathy, the apathy of the condemned had come upon her. At dinner Varvara Pavlovna spoke little; she seemed to have grown timid again, and her countenance was overspread with an expression of modest melancholy.
'But how about that baron, your new acquaintance, is he coming to-day? asked Pigasov. 'Yes, he is coming. 'He is a great philosopher, they say; he is just brimming over with Hegel, I suppose? Darya Mihailovna made no reply, and making Alexandra Pavlovna sit down on the sofa, established herself near her. 'Philosophies, continued Pigasov, 'are elevated points of view!
Before Anna Pavlovna and the others had time to smile their appreciation of the vicomte's epigram, Pierre again broke into the conversation, and though Anna Pavlovna felt sure he would say something inappropriate, she was unable to stop him.
"What are you being congratulated about, Darya Pavlovna? Bah! Surely that's not it? Your blush proves I've guessed right. And indeed, what else does one congratulate our charming and virtuous young ladies on? And what congratulations make them blush most readily? Well, accept mine too, then, if I've guessed right! And pay up.
That day Varenka came to dinner and told them that Anna Pavlovna had changed her mind and given up the expedition for the morrow. And the princess noticed again that Kitty reddened. "Kitty, haven't you had some misunderstanding with the Petrovs?" said the princess, when they were left alone. "Why has she given up sending the children and coming to see us?"
His relations with Anna Pavlovna altogether were of a very curious sort. She directed the whole management of the household; at dinner she always sat beside her husband he would mercilessly have chastised any one who had dared to say a disrespectful word to her and yet he never spoke to her, never touched her hand. Anna Pavlovna was a pale, broken-spirited woman, completely crushed.
'My faithful companion, he faltered, 'my honoured wife, I would bow down at your little feet for all your love and faithfulness but how to get up? Let me sign you with the cross. Malania Pavlovna moved closer, bent down.... But the hand he had raised fell back powerless on the quilt, and a few moments later Alexey Sergeitch was no more.
What made things worse was that Lavretsky had hoped, in the course of a few months, to find himself once more a father. His past, his future, his whole life was poisoned. At last he returned to Paris, went to a hotel, and sent Varvara Pavlovna M. Ernest's note with the following letter: "The scrap of paper which accompanies this will explain every thing to you.
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