ays lowered her voice;
and, at the same time, she became greatly agitated):--"happiness on earth
does not depend upon us...."

"It does, it does depend upon us, believe me," (he seized both her hands;
Liza turned pale, and gazed at him almost in terror, but with
attention):--"if only we have not ruined our own lives. For some people,
a love-marriage may prove unhappy; but not for you, with your calm
temperament, with your clear soul! I entreat you, do not marry without
love, from a sense of duty, of renunciation, or anything else.... That,
also, is want of faith, that is calculation,--and even worse. Believe
me,--I have a right to speak thus: I have paid dearly for that right. And
if your God...."

At that moment, Lavretzky noticed that Lyenotchka and Schurotchka were
standing beside Liza, and staring at him with dumb amazement. He released
Liza's hands, said hastily: "Pray pardon me,"--and walked toward the
house.

"I have only one request to make of you,"--he said, returning to
Liza:--"do not decide instantly, wait, think over what I have said to
you. Even if you have not believed me, if you have made up your mind to a
marriage of reason,--even in that case, you ought not to marry Mr.
Panshin: he cannot be your husband.... Promise me, will you not, not to
be in a hurry?"

Liza tried to answer Lavretzky, but did not utter a word,--not because
she had made up her mind "to be in a hurry"; but because her heart was
beating too violently, and a sensation resembling fear had stopped her
breath.

XXX

As he was leaving the Kalitins' house, Lavretzky encountered Panshin;
they saluted each other coldly. Lavretzky went home to his apartment,
and locked himself in. He experienced a sensation such as he had, in all
probability, never experienced before. Had he remained long in that state
of "peaceful numbness"? had he long continued to feel, as he had
expressed it, "at the bottom of the river"? What had altered his
position? what had brought him out, to the surface? the most ordinary,
inevitable though always unexpected of events;--death? Yes: but he did
not think so much about the death of his wife, about his freedom,
as,--what sort of answer would Liza give to Panshin? He was conscious
that, in the course of the last three days, he had come to look upon her
with different eyes; he recalled how, on returning home, and thinking
about her in the silence of the night, he had said t