this distance between them lessened, she felt by the beating of her heart
that gratified pride was changing into a more tender sentiment, and that
for her part she loved Foedor as much as it was possible for her to love
anyone.

She had nevertheless concealed these feelings under an appearance of
haughty indifference, for Vaninka was made so: she intended to let Foedor
know some day that she loved him, but until the time came when it pleased
her to reveal it, she did not wish the young man to discover her love.
Things went on in this way for several months, and the circumstances
which had at first appeared to Foedor as the height of happiness soon
became awful torture.

To love and to feel his heart ever on the point of avowing its love, to
be from morning till night in the company of the beloved one, to meet her
hand at the table, to touch her dress in a narrow corridor, to feel her
leaning on his arm when they entered a salon or left a ballroom, always
to have ceaselessly to control every word, look, or movement which might
betray his feelings, no human power could endure such a struggle.

Vaninka saw that Foedor could not keep his secret much longer, and
determined to anticipate the avowal which she saw every moment on the
point of escaping his heart.

One day when they were alone, and she saw the hopeless efforts the young
man was making to hide his feelings from her, she went straight up to
him, and, looking at him fixedly, said:

"You love me!"