'I have been visiting a sick woman . . . And where have you come from,
Mihailo Mihailitch?'

The man addressed as Mihailo Mihailitch looked into her eyes and
smiled again.

'You do well,' he said, 'to visit the sick, but wouldn't it be better
for you to take her into the hospital?'

'She is too weak; impossible to move her.'

'But don't you intend to give up your hospital?'

'Give it up? Why?'

'Oh, I thought so.'

'What a strange notion! What put such an idea into your head?'

'Oh, you are always with Madame Lasunsky now, you know, and seem to be
under her influence. And in her words--hospitals, schools, and all
that sort of things, are mere waste of time--useless fads.
Philanthropy ought to be entirely personal, and education too, all
that is the soul's work . . . that's how she expresses herself, I
believe. From whom did she pick up that opinion I should like to
know?'

Alexandra Pavlovna laughed.