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Both ladies had a very faint conception of our vast and remote fatherland; Signora Roselli, or as she was more often called, Frau Lenore, positively dumfoundered Sanin with the question, whether there was still existing at Petersburg the celebrated house of ice, built last century, about which she had lately read a very curious article in one of her husband's books, 'Bettezze delle arti. And in reply to Sanin's exclamation, 'Do you really suppose that there is never any summer in Russia? Frau Lenore replied that till then she had always pictured Russia like this eternal snow, every one going about in furs, and all military men, but the greatest hospitality, and all the peasants very submissive!
God Himself sent you here ... I am ready on my knees to beseech you.... And Frau Lenore half rose from her seat as though about to fall at Sanin's feet.... He restrained her. 'Frau Lenore! For mercy's sake! What are you doing? She clutched his hand impulsively. 'You promise ... 'Frau Lenore, think a moment; what right have I ... 'You promise?
Sanin's walk with Maria Nikolaevna, Sanin's talk with Maria Nikolaevna lasted over an hour. And they did not stop once; they kept walking about the endless avenues of the park, now mounting a hill and admiring the view as they went, and now going down into the valley, and getting hidden in the thick shadows, and all the while arm-in-arm.
She snatched the garnet cross that hung round her neck on a thin cord, gave it a violent tug, snapped the cord, and handed him the cross. 'If I am yours, your faith is my faith! Sanin's eyes were still wet when he went back with Gemma into the house. By the evening everything went on in its accustomed way. They even played a game of tresette. Sanin woke up very early.
Communicating all this information in a few seconds, he suddenly fell on Sanin's shoulder, kissed him impulsively, and rushed away down the street. Gemma met Sanin in the shop; tried to say something and could not. Her lips were trembling a little, while her eyes were half-closed and turned away. He made haste to soothe her by the assurance that the whole affair had ended ... in utter nonsense.
His lofty, disinterested soul was worthy of a martyr's crown! Then Gemma expressed her regret that Sanin's life had apparently been so unsuccessful, wished him before everything peace and a tranquil spirit, and said that she would be very glad to see him again, though she realised how unlikely such a meeting was....
The four women in the story, Sanin's sister Lyda, the pretty school-teacher Karsavina, Jurii's sister, engaged to a young scientist, who during the engagement cordially invites her brother to accompany him to a house of ill-fame, and the mother of Sanin, are all thoroughly conventional, and are meant to be. They are living under what Sanin regards as the tyranny of social convention.
These passions are manly and natural, and what is natural cannot be wrong. There is in Sanin's doctrine something of Nietzsche and more of Rousseau. Sanin himself is not at all a contemptible character. He is not argumentative except when dragged into an argument; he does not attempt to convert others to his views. He has the inner light which we more often associate with Christian faith.
You see I didn't do that for his sake, but for my own. How dare he thank me? I didn't hear what you asked me. 'I asked ... I wanted to know what makes you so happy to-day. 'Do you know what, said Maria Nikolaevna; either she had again not heard Sanin's question, or she did not consider it necessary to answer it.
The latter promptly ducked behind the bush again, and from there, all huddled together, his eyes screwed up, and his head turned away, he shouted at the top of his voice: 'Una ... due ... tre! The first shot was Sanin's, and he missed. His bullet went ping against a tree. Baron von Doenhof shot directly after him intentionally, to one side, into the air.
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