Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VII).djvu/94

Rh I understand you very well; I can see that you are infected with these new ideas which will inevitably lead you to your ruin! but then it will be too late.'

'Perhaps; but you may rest assured of one thing: even in my ruin, I shall never hold out a finger to you for aid.'

'Conceit again, this awful conceit! Come, listen to me, Marianna, listen to me,' she went on, suddenly changing her tone. She was on the point of drawing Marianna to her, but Marianna stepped back a pace. 'Écoutez-moi, je vous en conjure. After all, you know I am not so old and not so stupid that it's impossible for us to understand each other. Je ne suis pas une encroutée. I was even regarded as a republican in my young days just as you are. Listen to me. I will not affect what I don't feel. I have never felt a mother's tenderness for you, and it's not in your character to complain of that but I have recognised and I do recognise that I have duties in regard to you, and I have always tried to perform them. Perhaps the match I dreamed of for you, and for which Boris Andreitch and I, both of us, would have been ready to make any sacrifices that suitor did not fully answer to your ideas  but from the bottom of my heart'

Marianna looked at Valentina Mihalovna