in anger; I quite understand. I swear to God I love you beyond
anything on earth, and when I married you I never once thought of
your being rich. I loved you immensely, and that's all . . . I
assure you. I have never been in want of money or felt the value
of it, and so I cannot feel the difference between your fortune and
mine. It always seemed to me we were equally well off. And that I
have been deceitful in little things, that . . . of course, is true.
My life has hitherto been arranged in such a frivolous way that it
has somehow been impossible to get on without paltry lying. It
weighs on me, too, now. . . . Let us leave off talking about it,
for goodness' sake!"

Olga Mihalovna again felt in acute pain, and clutched her husband
by the sleeve.

"I am in pain, in pain, in pain . . ." she said rapidly. "Oh, what
pain!"

"Damnation take those visitors!" muttered Pyotr Dmitritch, getting
up. "You ought not to have gone to the island to-day!" he cried.
"What an idiot I was not to prevent you! Oh, my God!"

He scratched his head in vexation, and, with a wave of his hand,
walked out of the room.

Then he came into the room several times, sat down on the bed beside
her, and talked a great deal, sometimes tenderly, sometimes angrily,
but she hardly heard him. Her sobs were continually interrupted by
fearful attacks of pain, and each time the pain was more acute and
prolonged. At first she held her breath and bit the pillow during