Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VII).djvu/92

Rh no! that word is not strong enough—I am revolted by your late  your midnight visits to that young man's room. And that under my roof! Do you suppose that that is quite as it should be, and that I am to be silent, and, as it were, screen your flightiness? As a virtuous woman of irreproachable character Oui, mademoiselle, je l'ai été, je le suis, et le serai toujours—I cannot help feeling indignant.'

Valentina Mihalovna flung herself into an arm-chair as though crushed by the weight of her indignation.

Marianna smiled for the first time.

'I do not doubt your virtue, past, present, and future,' she began, 'and I say so quite sincerely; but your indignation is needless; I have brought no disgrace on your roof. The young man to whom you allude yes, I certainly  have come to love him.'

'You love Monsieur Nezhdanov?'

'Yes, I love him.'

Valentina Mihalovna sat up in her chair.

'Good gracious, Marianna! why, he's a student, of no birth, no family—why, he's younger than you are!' (There was a certain spiteful pleasure in the utterance of these words.) 'What can come of it? and what can you, with your intellect, find in him? He's simply a shallow boy.'