o himself: "If...."
That "if," wherein he had alluded to the past, to the impossible, had
come to pass, although not in the way he had anticipated,--but this was
little in itself. "She will obey her mother," he thought, "she will marry
Panshin; but even if she refuses him,--is it not all the same to me?" As
he passed in front of the mirror, he cast a cursory glance at his face,
and shrugged his shoulders.

The day sped swiftly by in these reflections; evening arrived. Lavretzky
wended his way to the Kalitins. He walked briskly, but approached their
house with lingering steps. In front of the steps stood Panshin's
drozhky. "Come,"--thought Lavretzky,--"I will not be an egoist," and
entered the house. Inside he met no one, and all was still in the
drawing-room; he opened the door, and beheld Marya Dmitrievna, playing
picquet with Panshin. Panshin bowed to him in silence, and the mistress
of the house uttered a little scream:--"How unexpected!"--and frowned
slightly. Lavretzky took a seat by her side, and began to look over her
cards.

"Do you know how to play picquet?"--she asked him, with a certain
dissembled vexation, and immediately announced that she discarded.

Panshin reckoned up ninety, and politely and calmly began to gather up
the tricks, with a severe and dignified expression on his countenance.
That is the way in which diplomats should play; probably, that is the way
in which he was wont to play in Petersburg, with some powerful dignitary,
whom he desired to impress with a favourable opinion as to his solidity
and maturity. "One hundred and one, one hundred and two, hearts; one
hundred and three,"--rang out his measured tone, and Lavretzky could not
understand what note resounded in it: reproach or self-conceit.

"Is Marfa Timofeevna to be seen?"--he asked, observing that Panshin,
still with great dignity, was beginning to shuffle the cards. Not a trace
of the artist was, as yet, to be observed in him.

"Yes, I think so. She is in her own apartments, up-stairs,"--replied
Marya Dmitrievna:--"you had better inquire."

Lavretzky went up-stairs, and found Marfa Timofeevna at cards also:
she was playing _duratchki_ (fools) with Nastasya Karpovna. Roska
barked at him; but both the old ladies welcomed him cordially, and Marfa
Timofeevna, in particular, seemed to be in high spirits.

"Ah! Fedya! Pray come in,"--she said:--"sit down, my dear little father.
We shall be through our game directly. Wouldst thou like