Page:Chernyshevsky.whatistobedone.djvu/69

Rh !" he thought, getting up when his mother entered. But he saw in her face a scornful triumph.

She sat down; she said: "Sit down, Mikhaïl Ivanuitch, and we will have a talk." And she looked at him for a long time with a smile; at last she continued: "I am very well content, Mikhaïl Ivanuitch; guess why I am content."

"I do not know what to guess, maman; you are so strange—"

"You will see that there is nothing strange at all; think away, and perhaps you will guess!"

Again a long pause. He is lost in perplexity; she is enjoying her triumph.

"You cannot guess; I will tell you. It is very simple and natural; if you had a spark of noble feeling, you would have guessed it. Your mistress"—in the former talk Anna Petrovna had to tack ship, but now she had no reason to tack; the means of defeating her was taken away from her opponent—"Your mistress—don't you answer me back, Mikhaïl Ivanuitch—you yourself have boasted everywhere that she was your mistress,—this creature of low origin, of low training, of low behavior—even this contemptible creature—"

"Maman, I am not willing to hear such expressions about the girl who is to be my wife."

"I should not have used them, if I had thought that she was going to be your wife. And I began with the intention of explaining to you that this was not to be, and why it was not to be. Allow me to finish. Then you may freely reproach me for these expressions, which will then be out of place according to your idea; but now allow me to finish. I wish to say that your mistress, this nameless creature, untrained, mannerless, feelingless—even she puts you to shame, even she understands all the shamelessness of your intentions—"

"What? what is that? Speak, maman!"

"You yourself are hindering me. I was going to say that even she—do you hear?—even she!—could understand and appreciate my feelings; even she when she learned from her mother about your offer, sent her father to tell me, that she would not put herself in opposition to my will and would not degrade our family by her polluted name."

"Maman, you are deceiving me!"

"Fortunately for me and you, no! She says that—"