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RUDIN still living at Darya Mihailovna’s?’ he concluded, turning to Bassistoff.

‘Oh yes, he is still there. She has managed to get him a very profitable place.’

Lezhnyov smiled.

‘That’s a man who won’t die in want, one can count upon that.’

Supper was over. The guests dispersed. When she was left alone with her husband, Alexandra Pavlovna looked smiling into his face.

‘How splendid you were this evening, Misha,’ she said, stroking his forehead, ‘how cleverly and nobly you spoke! But confess, you exaggerated a little in Rudin’s praise, as in old days you did in attacking him.’

‘I can’t let them hit a man when he’s down. And in those days I was afraid he was turning your head.’

‘No,’ replied Alexandra Pavlovna naïvely, ‘he always seemed too learned for me. I was afraid of him, and never knew what to say in his presence. But wasn’t Pigasov nasty in his ridicule of him to-day?’

‘Pigasov?’ responded Lezhnyov. ‘That 224