eing discomfited at first; but Varvara Pavlovna
treated him with such coquettish respect, that his ears began to burn,
and fibs, scandals, amiable remarks trickled out of his mouth like honey.
Varvara Pavlovna listened to him with a repressed smile, and became
rather talkative herself. She modestly talked about Paris, about her
travels, about Baden; twice she made Marya Dmitrievna laugh, and on
each occasion she heaved another little sigh, as though she were mentally
reproaching herself for her ill-timed mirth; she asked permission to
bring Ada; removing her gloves, she showed, with her smooth hands washed
with soap _a la guimauve_, how and where flounces, ruches, lace, and
knots of ribbon were worn; she promised to bring a phial of the new
English perfume, Victoria's Essence, and rejoiced like a child when
Marya Dmitrievna consented to accept it as a gift; she wept at the
remembrance of the feeling she had experienced when, for the first time,
she had heard the Russian bells;--"so profoundly did they stagger my very
heart,"--she said.

At that moment, Liza entered.

From the morning, from the very moment when, chilled with terror, she had
perused Lavretzky's note, Liza had been preparing herself to meet his
wife; she had a presentiment that she should see her, by way of
punishment to her own criminal hopes, as she called them. She had made up
her mind not to shun her. The sudden crisis in her fate had shaken her to
the very foundations; in the course of about two hours her face had grown
haggard; but she did not shed a tear. "It serves me right!"--she said to
herself, with difficulty and agitation suppressing in her soul certain
bitter, spiteful impulses, which alarmed even herself:--"Come, I must go
down!"--she thought, as soon as she heard of Mme. Lavretzky's arrival,
and she went.... For a long time she stood outside the door of the
drawing-room, before she could bring herself to open it; with the
thought: "I am to blame toward her,"--she crossed the threshold, and
forced herself to look at her, forced herself to smile. Varvara
Pavlovna advanced to meet her as soon as she saw her, and made a slight
but nevertheless respectful inclination before her.--"Allow me to
introduce myself,"--she began, in an insinuating voice:--"your _maman_ is
so indulgent toward me, that I hope you will also be ... kind." The
expression on Varvara Pavlovna's face, as she uttered this last word,
her sly smile, her cold and at the same time