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RUDIN Alas! if I could really devote myself to these interests, if I could at last conquer my inertia. But no! I shall remain to the end the incomplete creature I have always been. The first obstacle, and I collapse entirely; what has passed with you has shown me that. If I had but sacrificed my love to my future work, to my vocation; but I simply was afraid of the responsibility that had fallen upon me, and therefore I am, truly, unworthy of you. I do not deserve that you should be torn out of your sphere for me. And indeed all this, perhaps, is for the best. I shall perhaps be the stronger and the purer for this experience.

‘I wish you all happiness. Farewell! Think sometimes of me. I hope that you may still hear of me.

‘RUDIN.’

Natalya let Rudin’s letter drop on to her lap, and sat a long time motionless, her eyes fixed on the ground. This letter proved to her clearer than all possible arguments that she had been right, when in the morning, at her parting with Rudin, she had involuntarily cried out that he 201