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Rudin's sudden, and wholly unexplained, departure had taken a great load off her heart, but she had expected tears, and hysterics.... Natalya's outward composure threw her out of her reckoning again. 'Well, child, began Darya Mihailovna, 'how are you to-day? Natalya looked at her mother. 'He is gone, you see... your hero. Do you know why he decided on going so quickly?
'At last you have favoured me with a visit, Monsieur Lezhnyov! began Darya Mihailovna. 'Pray sit down. You are already acquainted, I hear, she continued, with a gesture in Rudin's direction. Lezhnyov looked at Rudin and smiled rather queerly. 'I know Mr. Rudin, he assented, with a slight bow. 'We were together at the university, observed Rudin in a low voice, dropping his eyes.
But Darya Mihailovna clapped her hands crying, 'Bravo, bravo, Pigasov's beaten! and she gently took Rudin's hat from his hand. 'Defer your delight a little, madam; there's plenty of time! Pigasov began with annoyance. 'It's not sufficient to say a witty word, with a show of superiority; you must prove, refute. We had wandered from the subject of our discussion.
But there's all the difference between word and deed, and you were afraid now, just as you were afraid the day before yesterday at dinner of Volintsev. The colour rushed to Rudin's face. Natalya's unexpected energy had astounded him; but her last words wounded his vanity. 'You are too angry now, Natalya Alexyevna, he began; 'you cannot realise how bitterly you wound me.
'What do you want a pencil for? he said at last 'I want to write down Mr. Rudin's last sentence. If one doesn't write it down, one might forget it, I'm afraid! But you will own, a sentence like that is such a handful of trumps. 'There are things which it is a shame to laugh at and make fun of, African Semenitch! said Bassistoff warmly, turning away from Pigasov.
Boncourt often glanced at Rudin with a peculiarly stealthy expression in her eyes; in old setter dogs one may sometimes see the same expression. 'Aha! she seemed to be saying to herself, 'so you're caught! At last six o'clock struck, and Rudin's carriage was brought to the door. He began to take a hurried farewell of all. He had a feeling of nausea at his heart.
Rudin himself shed tears too, but he was not weeping because he was parting from Bassistoff. His tears were the tears of wounded vanity. Natalya had gone to her own room, and there she read Rudin's letter. 'Dear Natalya Alexyevna, he wrote her, 'I have decided to depart. There is no other course open to me. I have decided to leave before I am told plainly to go.
'That is, you threw up your daily bread, Dmitri, said Lezhnyov, laying both hands on Rudin's shoulders. 'Yes, and again I was turned adrift, empty-handed and penniless, to fly whither I listed. Ah! let us drink! 'To your health! said Lezhnyov, getting up and kissing Rudin on the forehead. 'To your health and to the memory of Pokorsky. He, too, knew how to be poor.
'What does that mean? she was thinking. Rudin stood still, tossed his hair back, and walked away. Natalya went to her own room. She sat a long while on her little bed in perplexity, pondering over Rudin's last words. All at once she clasped her hands and began to weep bitterly. What she was weeping for who can tell? She herself could not tell why her tears were falling so fast.
Cosmopolitanism is all twaddle, the cosmopolitan is a nonentity worse than a nonentity; without nationality is no art, nor truth, nor life, nor anything. You cannot even have an ideal face without individual expression; only a vulgar face can be devoid of it. But I say again, that is not Rudin's fault; it is his fate a cruel and unhappy fate for which we cannot blame him.
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