nt to her room,
dressed, and sitting at the window fell to waiting for the morning.
She sat all night thinking, while someone seemed to be tapping on
the shutters and whistling in the yard.

In the morning Granny complained that the wind had blown down all
the apples in the garden, and broken down an old plum tree. It was
grey, murky, cheerless, dark enough for candles; everyone complained
of the cold, and the rain lashed on the windows. After tea Nadya
went into Sasha's room and without saying a word knelt down before
an armchair in the corner and hid her face in her hands.

"What is it?" asked Sasha.

"I can't . . ." she said. "How I could go on living here before, I
can't understand, I can't conceive! I despise the man I am engaged
to, I despise myself, I despise all this idle, senseless existence."

"Well, well," said Sasha, not yet grasping what was meant. "That's
all right . . . that's good."

"I am sick of this life," Nadya went on. "I can't endure another
day here. To-morrow I am going away. Take me with you for God's
sake!"

For a minute Sasha looked at her in astonishment; at last he
understood and was delighted as a child. He waved his arms and began
pattering with his slippers as though he were dancing with delight.

"Splendid," he said, rubbing his hands. "My goodness, how fine that
is!"

And she stared at him without blinking, with adoring eyes, as though
spellbound, expecting every minute that he would say something
important, something infinitely significant; he had told her nothing
yet, but already it seemed to her that something new and great was
opening before her which she had not known till then, and already
she gazed at him full of expectation, ready to face anything, even
death.

"I am going to-morrow," he said after a moment's thought. "You come
to the station to see me off. . . . I'll take your things in my
portmanteau, and I'll get your ticket, and when the third bell rings
you get into the carriage, and we'll go off. You'll see me as far
as Moscow and then go on to Petersburg alone. Have you a passport?"

"Yes."

"I can promise you, you won't regret it," said Sasha, with conviction.
"You will go, you will study, and then go where fate takes you.
When you turn your life upside down everything will be changed. The
great thing is to turn your life upside down, and all the rest is
unimportant. And so we will set off to-morrow?"

"Oh yes, for God's sake!"

It seemed to Nadya that