she says her prayers in the
evening,--and that is very praiseworthy; but she does not love him. She
can love only the fine, but he is not fine; that is, his soul is not
fine."

Lemm uttered this whole speech coherently and with fervour, pacing back
and forth, with short strides, in front of the tea-table, and with his
eyes flitting over the ground.

"My dearest Maestro!"--exclaimed Lavretzky all at once:--"it strikes me,
that you are in love with my cousin yourself."

Lemm came to a sudden halt.

"Please,"--he began in an uncertain voice:--"do not jest thus with me. I
am not a lunatic."

Lavretzky felt sorry for the old man; he entreated his forgiveness.
After tea, Lemm played him his cantata, and at dinner, being instigated
thereto by Lavretzky himself, he again began to talk about Liza.
Lavretzky listened to him with attention and curiosity.

"What think you, Christofor Feodoritch,"--he said at last--"everything
appears to be in order with us now, the garden is in full bloom.... Shall
not we invite her here for the day, together with her mother and my old
aunt,--hey? Would that be agreeable to you?"

Lemm bent his head over his plate.

"Invite her,"--he said, almost inaudibly.

"And Panshin need not be asked?"

"He need not,"--replied the old man, with a half-childlike smile.

Two days later, Feodor Ivanitch set out for the town, to the Kalitins.

XXIV

He found them all at home, but he did not immediately announce to them
his intention: he wished, first, to have a talk alone with Liza. Chance
aided him: they were left alone together in the drawing-room. They fell
into conversation: she had succeeded in getting used to him,--and, in
general, she was not shy of any one. He listened to her, looked her
straight in the face, and mentally repeated Lemm's words, and agreed with
him. It sometimes happens, that two persons who are already acquainted,
but not intimate, suddenly and swiftly draw near to each other in the
course of a few minutes,--and the consciousness of this approach is
immediately reflected in their glances, in their friendly, quiet smiles,
in their very movements. Precisely this is what took place with
Lavretzky and Liza. "So that's what he is like," she thought, gazing
caressingly at him; "so that's what thou art like," he said to himself
also. And therefore, he was not greatly surprised when she, not without a
slight hesitation, however, announced t