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 the voice of the singer who had taken the part of Lohengrin in the theatre—the same Russian tone and the same gentle sweetness. It would even have sounded more like it if it had not been so unpleasantly hoarse.

"I learnt your name from the dvornik of your house, Marya Constantìnovna," answered the young man. "I had no means of getting to know it otherwise, as I have no friends who are acquainted with you."

"That means, I suppose, that you asked the dvornik all about me," said Mashenka in a tone of annoyance. "It was a nice occupation for you, I must say."

But the young man was not at all abashed.

"Yes, I asked him about you and about your honoured mother and your nice little brother. I got all the information on the evening when I first met you."

"But why did you want to know about us?" asked Mashenka.

Not noticing what she was doing the girl turned and walked again in the direction of her home, and the red-haired young man walked by her side. He answered her with a strange circumstantiality.

"Of course you yourself understand,