eyes; while Dunyasha was obliged to run away into the wood to hide her emotion. The originator of all this woe got into a light cart, smoked a cigar, and when at the third mile, at the bend in the road, the Kirsanovs’ farm, with its new house, could be seen in a long line, he merely spat, and muttering, ‘Cursed snobs!’ wrapped himself closer in his cloak.

Pavel Petrovitch was soon better; but he had to keep his bed about a week. He bore his captivity, as he called it, pretty patiently, though he took great pains over his toilette, and had everything scented with eau-de-cologne. Nikolai Petrovitch used to read him the journals; Fenitchka waited on him as before, brought him lemonade, soup, boiled eggs, and tea; but she was overcome with secret dread whenever she went into his room. Pavel Petrovitch’s unexpected action had alarmed every one in the house, and her more than any one; Prokofitch was the only person not agitated by it; he discoursed upon how gentlemen in his day used to fight, but only with real gentlemen; low curs like that they used to order a horsewhipping in the stable for their insolence.

Fenitchka’s conscience scarcely reproached her; but she was tormented at times by the thought of the real cause of the quarrel; and Pavel Petrovitch too looked at her so strangely … that even when her back was turned, she felt his eyes upon her. She grew thinner from constant inward agitation, and, as is always the way, became still more charming.

One day—the incident took place in the morning—Pavel Petrovitch felt better and moved from his bed to the sofa, while Nikolai Petrovitch, having satisfied himself he was better, went off to the threshing-floor. Fenitchka brought him a cup of tea, and setting it down on a little table, was about to withdraw. Pavel Petrovitch detained her.

‘Where are you going in such a hurry, Fedosya Nikolaevna?’ he began; ‘are you busy?’

‘… I have to pour out tea.’

‘Dunyasha will do that without you; sit a little while with a poor invalid. By the way, I must have a little talk with you.’

Fenitchka sat down on the edge of an easy-chair, without speaking.

‘Listen,’ said Pavel Petrovitch, tugging at his moustaches; ‘I have long wanted to ask you something; you seem somehow afraid of me?’

‘I?’

‘Yes, you. You never look at me, as though your conscience were not at rest.’

Fenitchka crimsoned, but looked at Pavel Petrovitch. He impressed her as looking strange, and her heart began throbbing slowly.

‘Is your conscience at rest?’ he questioned her.

‘Why should it not be at rest?’ she faltered.

‘Goodness knows why! Besides, whom can you have wronged? Me? That is not likely. Any other people in the house here? That, too, is something incredible. Can it be my brother? But you love him, don’t you?’

‘I love him.’

‘With your whole soul, with your whole heart?’

‘I love Nikolai Petrovitch with my whole heart.’

‘Truly? Look at me, Fenitchka.’ (It was the first time he had called her that name.) ‘You know, it’s a great sin telling lies!’

‘I am not telling lies, Pavel Petrovitch. Not love Nikolai Petrovitch—I shouldn’t care to live after that.’

‘And will you never give him up for any one?’

‘For whom could I give him up?’

‘For whom indeed! Well, how about that gentleman who has just gone away from here?’

Fenitchka got up. ‘My God, Pavel Petrovitch, what are you torturing me for? What have I done to you? How can such things be said?’…

‘Fenitchka,’ said Pavel Petrovitch, in a sorrowful voice, ‘you know I saw …’

‘What did you see?’

‘Well, there … in the arbour.’

Fenitchka crimsoned to her hair and to her ears. ‘How was I to blame for that?’ she articulated with an effort.

Pavel Petrovitch raised himself up. ‘You were not to blame? No? Not at all?’

‘I love Nikolai Petrovitch, and no one else in the world, and I shall always love him!’ cried Fenitchka with sudden force, while her throat seemed fairly breaking with sobs. ‘As for what you saw, at the dreadful day of judgment I will say I’m not to blame, and wasn’t to blame for it, and I would rather die at once if people can suspect me of such a thing against my benefactor, Nikolai Petrovitch.’

But here her voice broke, and at the same time she felt that Pavel Petrovitch was snatching and pressing her hand…. She looked at him, and was fairly petrified. He had turned even paler than before; his eyes were shining, and what was most marvellous of all, one large solitary tear was rolling down his cheek.

‘Fenitchka!’ he was saying in a strange whisper; ‘love him, love my brother! Don’t give him up for any one in the world; don’t listen to any one else! Think what can be more terrible than to love and not be loved! Never leave my poor Nikolai!’

Fenitchka’s eyes were dry, and her terror had passed away, so great was her amazement. But what were her feelings when Pavel Petrovitch, Pavel Petrovitch himself, put her hand to his lips and seemed to pierce into it without kissing it, and only heaving convulsive sighs from time to time….

‘Goodness,’ she thought, ‘isn’t it some attack coming on him?’…

At that instant his whole ruined life was stirred up within him.

The staircase creaked under rapidly approaching footsteps…. He pushed her away from him, and let his head drop back on the pillow. The door opened, and Nikolai Petrovitch entered, cheerful, fresh, and ruddy. Mitya, as fresh and ruddy as his father, in nothing but his little shirt, was frisking on his shoulder, catching the big buttons of his rough country coat with his little bare toes.

Fenitchka simply flung herself upon him, and clasping him and her son together in her arms, dropped her head on his shoulder. Nikolai Petrovitch was surprised; Fenitchka, the reserved and staid Fenitchka, had never given him a caress in the presence of a third person.

‘What’s the matter?’ he said, and, glancing at his brother, he gave her Mitya. ‘You don’t feel worse?’ he inquired, going up to Pavel Petrovitch.

He buried his face in a cambric handkerchief. ‘No … not at all … on the contrary, I am much better.’

‘You were in too great a hurry to move on to the sofa. Where are you going?’ added Nikolai Petrovitch, turning round to Fenitchka; but she had already closed the door behind her. ‘I was bringing in my young hero to show you, he’s been crying for his uncle. Why has she carried him off? What’s wrong with you, though? Has anything passed between you, eh?’

‘Brother!’ said Pavel Petrovitch solemnly.

Nikolai Petrovitch started. He felt dismayed, he could not have said why himself.

‘Brother,’ repeated Pavel Petrovitch, ‘give me your word that you will carry out my one request.’

‘What request? Tell me.’

‘It is very important; the whole happiness of your life, to my idea, depends on it. I have been thinking a great deal all this time over what I want to say to you now…. Brother, do your duty, the duty of an honest and generous man; put an end to the scandal and bad example you are setting—you, the best of men!’

‘What do you mean, Pavel?’

‘Marry Fenitchka…. She loves you; she is the mother of your son.’

Nikolai Petrovitch stepped back a pace, and flung up his hands. ‘Do you say that, Pavel? you whom I have always regarded as the most determined opponent of such marriages! You say that? Don’t you know that it has simply been out of respect for you that I have not done what you so rightly call my duty?’

‘You were wrong to respect me in that case,’ Pavel Petrovitch responded, with a weary smile. ‘I begin to think Bazarov was right in accusing me of snobbishness. No dear brother, don’t let us worry ourselves about appearances and the world’s opinion any more; we are old folks and humble now; it’s time we laid aside vanity of all kinds. Let us, just as you say, do our duty; and mind, we shall get happiness that way into the bargain.’

Nikolai Petrovitch rushed to embrace his brother.

‘You have opened my eyes completely!’ he cried. ‘I was right in always declaring you the wisest and kindest-hearted fellow in the world, and now I see you are just as reasonable as you are noble-hearted.’

‘Quietly, quietly,’ Pavel Petrovitch interrupted him; ‘don’t hurt the leg of your reasonable brother, who at close upon fifty has been fighting a duel like an ensign. So, then, it’s a settled matter; Fenitchka is to be my … belle soeur.’

‘My dearest Pavel! But what will Arkady say?’

‘Arkady? he’ll be in ecstasies, you may depend upon it! Marriage is against his principles, but then the sentiment of equality in him will be gratified. And, after all, what sense have class distinctions au dix-neuvième siècle?’

‘Ah, Pavel, Pavel! let me kiss you once more! Don’t be afraid, I’ll be careful.’

The brothers embraced each other.

‘What do you think, should you not inform her of your intention now?’ queried Pavel Petrovitch.

‘Why be in a hurry?’ responded Nikolai Petrovitch. ‘Has there been any conversation between you?’

‘Conversation between us? Quelle idée!’

‘Well, that is all right then. First of all, you must get well, and meanwhile there’s plenty of time. We must think it over well, and consider …’

‘But your mind is made up, I suppose?’

‘Of course, my mind is made up, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will leave you now; you must rest; any excitement is bad for you…. But we will talk it over again. Sleep well, dear heart, and God bless you!’

‘What is he thanking me