is very eccentric," said
Ignatius Nikiforovitch, already considering the necessity of a
guardianship, and he demanded that his wife should seriously speak to
her brother of this, his strange intention.

CHAPTER XX.

In the evening Nekhludoff went to his sister. Ignatius Nikiforovitch
was resting in another room, and Natalie Ivanovna alone met him. She
wore a tight-fitting black silk dress, with a knot of red ribbon, and
her hair was done up according to the latest fashion. She was
evidently making herself look young for her husband. Seeing her
brother, she quickly rose from the divan, and, rustling with her silk
skirt, she went out to meet him. They kissed and, smiling, looked at
each other. There was an exchange of those mysterious, significant
glances in which everything was truth; then followed an exchange of
words in which that truth was lacking. They had not met since the
death of their mother.

"You have grown stout and young," he said.

Her lips contracted with pleasure.

"And you have grown thin."

"Well, how is Ignatius Nikiforovitch?" asked Nekhludoff.

"He is resting. He has not slept all night."

A great deal should have been said here, but their words said nothing,
and their glances said that that which interested them most was left
unsaid.

"I have been at your lodging."

"Yes, I know it. I have moved from the house. I am so lonely and
weary. I do not need any of those things, so you take them--the
furniture--everything."

"Yes, Agrippina Petrovna told me. I have been there. I thank you very
much. But----"

At that moment the servant brought in a silver tea service. Natalie
Ivanovna busied herself with making the tea. Nekhludoff was silent.

"Well, Dimitri, I know everything," Natalie said, resolutely, glancing
at him.

"I am very glad that you know."

"Do you think it possible to reform her after such a life?"

He was sitting erect on a small chair, attentively listening to her,
prepared to answer satisfactorily her every question. He was still in
that frame of mind which, after his last meeting with Maslova, filled
his soul with tranquil happiness and love for all mankind.

"It is not her that I intend to reform, but myself," he answered.

Natalie Ivanovna sighed.

"There are other means besides marriage."

"And I think that that is the best. Besides, that will bring me into
that world in which I can be useful."

"I do not think," said Natalie Ivanovna, "that you cou