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RUDIN Rudin was about to say something, but he only waved his hands, bowed and went away, and Volintsev flung himself on the sofa and turned his face to the wall.

‘May I come in?’ Alexandra Pavlovna’s voice was heard saying at the door.

Volintsev did not answer at once, and stealthily passed his hand over his face. ‘No, Sasha,’ he said, in a slightly altered voice, ‘wait a little longer.’

Half an hour later, Alexandra Pavlovna again came to the door.

‘Mihailo Mihailitch is here,’ she said, ‘will you see him?’

‘Yes,’ answered Volintsev, ‘let them show him up here.’

Lezhnyov came in.

‘What, aren’t you well?’ he asked, seating himself in a chair near the sofa.

Volintsev raised himself, and, leaning on his elbow gazed a long, long while into his friend’s face, and then repeated to him his whole conversation with Rudin word for word. He had never before given Lezhnyov a hint of his sentiments towards 157