Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume XV).djvu/157

 but he turned round and stopped in the middle of the room.

'Well, what do you think?' I began, not waiting for him to speak.

'I have acted wrongly towards her,' Fustov declared thickly. 'I have behaved rashly, unpardonably, cruelly. I believed that Viktor'

'What!' I cried; 'that Viktor whom you despise so! But what could he say to you?'

Fustov crossed his arms and stood obliquely to me. He was ashamed, I saw that.

'Do you remember,' he said with some effort, 'that Viktor alluded to  a pension. That unfortunate word stuck in my head. It's the cause of everything. I began questioning him. Well, and he'

'What did he say?'

'He told me that the old man what's his name? Koltovsky, had allowed Susanna that pension because on account of  well, in fact, by way of damages.'

I flung up my hands.

'And you believed him?'

Fustov nodded.

'Yes! I believed him. He said, too, that with the young one In fact, my behaviour is unjustifiable.'

'And you went away so as to break everything off?'