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She knew that she possessed the almost undivided love of her other child, the passionate Vera, whose character had been ripened by bitter experience. Tushin stayed with a friend in the town for the wedding.
Tushin turned pale, swayed, lost his balance, and sat down beside her. Even in the dim light Vera noticed his pallor. "And I thought," he said, with a strange smile, as if he were ashamed of his weakness, rising to his feet with difficulty, "that only a bear was strong enough to knock me over." Then he stooped to her and whispered, "Who?"
Were they terrified by the storm?" "My horses obey me like dogs. Should I have driven Vera Vassilievna if there were any danger?" "You are a good friend," interrupted Vera. "I have absolute trust both in you, and in your horses." At this moment Raisky returned, having changed his clothes. He had noticed the glance which Vera gave Tushin, and had heard her last remark.
They looked one another straight in the eyes and read there a mutual confidence. After dinner Raisky went to his room, and Tushin excused himself on the ground of business. Vera's thoughts followed him. It was nearly five o'clock when he was trying to find his direction in the thicket.
Of Tushin himself there was little more to say than was revealed on a first occasion; his character lay bare to the daylight, with no secret, no romantic side. He possessed more than plain good sense, for his understanding did not derive from the brain alone, but from the heart and will.
After her talk of past events with Raisky and Tushin she recovered something of her usual calmness; a part of her burden was gone now that, like a sailor in a storm, she had lightened the ship of some of its ballast, but she felt that the heaviest load of all still lay on her conscience. It is impossible to go on living like this, she told herself, as she made her way to the chapel.
About Tushin and the battalion that had been in support of his battery all was forgotten.
"When I thought my happiness was within my grasp, I heard...." "Tushin was there?" whispered Paulina Karpovna, holding her breath. He nodded silently, and raised his glass once more. "Dites tout," she said with a malicious smile. "She was walking alone, lost in thought," he said in a confidential tone, while Paulina Karpovna played with her watch chain, and listened with strained attention.
Tushin offered to drive with him, for company's sake, as he said; in reality he wanted to know why Tatiana Markovna had sent for Raisky, whether there was a new turn in Vera's affairs, or any service to be rendered her. He remembered uncomfortably his meeting with Mark, and how unwillingly he had said that he was going away.
Vera told herself that she must know what was in his mind, that if he looked at her again like that she would collapse. He did look at her again, and she could endure no more and left the company. Before she went she signed secretly to Tushin to follow her. "I cannot receive you in the old house," she said, "Come into the avenue." "Is it not too damp, as you are not well?"
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