XXVI


For eight whole days Insarov lay between life and death. The doctor
was incessantly visiting him, interested as a young man in a difficult
case. Shubin heard of Insarov's critical position, and made inquiries
after him. His compatriots--Bulgarians--came; among them Bersenyev
recognised the two strange figures, who had puzzled him by their
unexpected visit to the cottage; they all showed genuine sympathy,
some offered to take Bersenyev's place by the patient's bed-side; but
he would not consent to that, remembering his promise to Elena. He saw
her every day and secretly reported to her--sometimes by word of
mouth, sometimes in a brief note--every detail of the illness. With
what sinkings of the heart she awaited him, how she listened and
questioned him! She was always on the point of hastening to Insarov
herself; but Bersenyev begged her not to do this: Insarov was seldom
alone. On the first day she knew of his illness she
herself had almost fallen ill; directly she got home, she shut
herself up in her room; but she was summoned to dinner, and appeared
in the dining-room with such a face that Anna Vassilyevna was
alarmed, and was anxious to put her to bed. Elena succeeded, however,
in controlling herself. 'If he dies,' she repeated, 'it will be the
end of me too.' This thought tranquillised her, and enabled her to
seem indifferent. Besides no one troubled her much; Anna Vassilyevna
was taken up with her swollen face; Shubin was working furiously;
Zoya was given up to pensiveness, and disposed to read _Werther_;
Nikolai Artemyevitch was much displeased at the frequent visits of
'the scholar,' especially as his 'cherished projects' in regard to
Kurnatovsky were making no way; the practical chief secretary was