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RUDIN He came up with a hesitating step, greeted all of them from a distance, and with an expression of pain on his face he turned to Natalya and said:

‘Oh, you are having a walk?’

‘Yes,’ answered Natalya, ‘we were just going home.’

‘Ah!’ was Volintsev’s reply. ‘Well, let us go,’ and they all walked towards the house.

‘How is your sister?’ Rudin inquired, in a specially cordial tone, of Volintsev. The evening before, too, he had been very gracious to him.

‘Thank you; she is quite well. She will perhaps be here to-day. I think you were discussing something when I came up?’

‘Yes; I have had a conversation with Natalya Alexyevna. She said one thing to me which affected me strongly.’

Volintsev did not ask what the one thing was, and in profound silence they all returned to Darya Mihailovna’s house.

Before dinner the party was again assembled in the drawing-room. Pigasov, however, did 91