was gloomy, and his eyes, fixed on a corner of the carriage, seemed
even more melancholy than usual.

Pandalevsky went to bed, and as he took off his daintily embroidered
braces, he said aloud 'A very smart fellow!' and suddenly, looking
harshly at his page, ordered him out of the room. Bassistoff did not
sleep the whole night and did not undress--he was writing till
morning a letter to a comrade of his in Moscow; and Natalya, too,
though she undressed and lay down in her bed, had not an instant's
sleep and never closed her eyes. With her head propped on her arm, she
gazed fixedly into the darkness; her veins were throbbing feverishly
and her bosom often heaved with a deep sigh.




IV


The next morning Rudin had only just finished dressing when a servant
came to him with an invitation from Darya Mihailovna to come to her
boudoir and drink tea with her. Rudin found her alone. She greeted him
very cordially, inquired whether he had passed a good night, poured
him out a cup of tea with her own hands, asked him whether there was
sugar enough in it, offered him a cigarette, and twice again repeated
that she was surprised that she had not met him long before. Rudin was
about to take a seat some distance away; but Darya Mihailovna motioned
him to an easy chair, which stood near her lounge, and bending a
little towards him began to question him about his family, his plans
and intentions. Darya Mihailovna spoke carelessly and listened with an