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Rh so, no indeed!" Suddenly she fell into deep thought, "Don't laugh because I said, 'I pity him—he loves me so.

"Does he love you? does he look at you the same way that I do or not? has he such a look?"

"Your eyes are frank, honest. No; your look does not offend me."

"You see, Viéra Pavlovna, it is because—but no matter. Does he look so?"

Viérotchka blushed and made no reply.

"Then he does not love you. That is not love, Viéra Pavlovna."

"But—" Viérotchka did not finish her sentence, but stopped.

"You were going to say, 'What is it, then, if it is not love?' Let that go; but you yourself say that is not love. Whom do you love best of all? I am not speaking of this kind of love—but of your relations, your friends."

"It seems to me, no one in particular, none of them very much; but no, not long ago, I met a very peculiar woman. She spoke very badly to me, called herself very hard names; she forbade me to keep up my acquaintance with her; we met in a very extraordinary way; she said that if ever I found myself in such need that I was in danger of dying, then only I might come to her, but not otherwise; I loved her very much."

"Would you want her to do anything for you that would be disagreeable or injurious for her?"

Viérotchka smiled. "But how could it be so?"

"But no; now imagine that you were very, very much in need of her help, and that she said to you, 'If I do this for you, it would torment me,' would you repeat your request, would you insist on it?"

"I would sooner die."

"Now you just told me that you loved her. But this love is only feeling, not a passion. And what is love—passion! and how can you distinguish passion from simple feeling?—by its strength. Consequently, if when one is moved by simple feeling, which is weak, very weak compared to passion, love places you in such relations to a man that you say, 'I would rather die than be the cause of torment to him.' If a simple feeling speaks so, what will passion say which is a thousand-fold stronger? It will say, 'I will sooner die than—not ask, not demand—but even admit that any man should