Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume X).djvu/111

Rh A few days later he passed away. A strange circumstance attended his second fainting-fit. When they lifted him up and laid him on his bed, in his clenched right hand they found a small tress of a woman's dark hair. Where did this lock of hair come from? Anna Semyonovna had such a lock of hair left by Clara; but what could induce her to give Aratov a relic so precious to her? Could she have put it somewhere in the diary, and not have noticed it when she lent the book? In the delirium that preceded his death, Aratov spoke of himself as Romeo. . . after the poison; spoke of marriage, completed and perfect; of his knowing now what rapture meant. Most terrible of all for Platosha was the minute when Aratov, coming a little to himself, and seeing her beside his bed, said to her, 'Aunt, what are you crying for? — because I must die? But don't you know that love is stronger than death? . . . Death! death ! where is thy sting? You should not weep, but rejoice, even as I rejoice. . . .' And once more on the face of the dying man shone out the rapturous smile, which gave the poor old woman such cruel pain.