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Rh "Bozhe moï! what has he done? How could it be that you did not stop him?"

"Just get the meaning of his expression, 'to leave these scenes,' and do not condemn me prematurely. He used that expression in the note which you received; didn't he? and we must use this very same expression, because it is very strikingly chosen."

Viéra Pavlovna's eyes began to show some lack of comprehension; her whole face clearly implied the thought, "I do not know what he means! what am I to think about this?"

O Rakhmétof! with all the apparent absurdity of his circumstantial manner of laying the matter before her, was a master, a great master, in the art of management! He was a great psychologist; he knew and could fulfil the laws of gradual preparation.

"And so, while going away, in order, as he rightly expressed it, 'to leave these scenes,' he left in my hands a note for you."

Viéra Pavlovna jumped up. "Where is it? Let me have it! and how could you sit a whole day without giving it to me?"

"I could, because I saw the necessity. Very soon you will appreciate my reasons; they are well founded. Before all, I want to explain to you the expression which I used when I began, 'that the result will be comforting to you.' I did not mean that this note would conduce to your comfort; for two reasons, the first of which is that the receipt of the note would not have been sufficiently comforting to deserve the name of consolation; isn't that true? For consolation something more is required. And so the consolation must be in the very contents of the note."

Viéra Pavlovna again jumped up.

"Be calm; I cannot say that you are in the wrong. Having mentioned to you the contents of the note, I shall ask you to listen to the second reason why I could not mean by the words 'comforting result' the mere act of your receiving the note, but that I had to mean its contents. These contents, the character of which we have insinuated, are so important that I can only show it to you, but I cannot give it to you. You may read it, but you cannot keep it."

"What! You are not going to give it to me?"

"No! For this very reason I was chosen! for anyone