Page:Chernyshevsky.whatistobedone.djvu/257

Rh She embraces her husband passionately; she clings to him, and when he has pacified her with his caresses, quietly falls asleep, kissing him.

next morning, Dmitri does not go to call his wife to breakfast; she is there with him, clinging to him. She is still asleep, and he is looking at her, and thinking, "What can be the matter with her? what frightened her so? what caused that dream?"

"Stay here, Viérotchka; I will bring thee thy tea here. Don't get up, my dear little girl. I will bring it to you, and you can wash your face and not get up."

"No, I will not get up; I will be awhile, it is so comfortable for me here. How smart you are, mílenki! and how I love thee! And now I have washed my face, and now thou canst bring the tea here. No; first take me into thy arms." And Viéra Pavlovna long holds her husband in her embrace. "Akh! my mílenki, how absurd I was! How did I happen to come running to your room? What will Masha think now? I shall hear from her how I woke up in your room. Kiss me, my mílenki, kiss me. I want to love thee; I must love thee. I am going to love thee as I never loved thee before."

Viéra Pavlovna's room is empty now. Viéra Pavlovna, without any concealment from Masha, has moved to her husband's apartment. "How tender he is, how kind, my mílenki! and I could imagine that I did not love thee! How absurd I am!"

"Viérotchka, now that you are calmed down, tell me what you dreamed day before yesterday."

"Akh! what nonsense! I only dreamed, as I told you, that you caressed me very little; but now it is good. Why didn't we always live this way? Then I should not have dreamed that horrible dream; it was dreadful, disgusting! I don't like to think about it."

"Yes, but if it had not been for it, we should not be living as we do now."

"That is true; I am very grateful to her; to that disgusting, no, not disgusting, I mean splendid, woman!"