Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume X).djvu/83

Rh not be entreating you ... I should not have come here. I want. . . I must. . . you yourself said I ought to defend her memory!' 'And you were not in love with my sister?' Anna asked a second time. Aratov did not at once reply, and he turned aside a little, as though in pain. 'Well, then ! I was ! I was — I 'm in love now,' he cried in the same tone of despair. Steps were heard in the next room. 'Get up. . . get up. . .' said Anna hurriedly. 'Mamma is coming.' Aratov rose. 'And take the diary and the photograph, in God's name ! Poor, poor Katia ! . . . But you will give me back the diary,' she added emphatically. 'And if you write anything, be sure to send it me. . . . Do you hear?' The entrance of Madame Milovidov saved Aratov from the necessity of a reply. He had time, however, to murmur, 'You are an angel! Thanks! I will send anything I write. . . .' Madame Milovidov, half awake, did not suspect anything. So Aratov left Kazan with the photograph in the breast-pocket of his coat. The diary he gave back to Anna; but, unobserved by her, he cut out the page on which were the words underlined. On the way back to Moscow he relapsed