, looks with a scared
face at his wife, and seems to ponder. After thinking a little, he
takes up the letter again with a sigh. . . . His face betrays
perplexity and even alarm. . . ."

"Well, this is beyond anything!" he mutters, as he finishes reading
the letter and flings the sheets on the table, "It's positively
incredible!"

"What's the matter?" asks Lidotchka, flustered.

"What's the matter! You've covered six pages, wasted a good two
hours scribbling, and there's nothing in it at all! If there were
one tiny idea! One reads on and on, and one's brain is as muddled
as though one were deciphering the Chinese wriggles on tea chests!
Ough!"

"Yes, that's true, Vanya, . . ." says Lidotchka, reddening. "I wrote
it carelessly. . . ."

"Queer sort of carelessness! In a careless letter there is some
meaning and style--there is sense in it--while yours . . .
excuse me, but I don't know what to call it! It's absolute twaddle!
There are words and sentences, but not the slightest sense in them.
Your whole letter is exactly like the conversation of two boys: 'We
had pancakes to-day! And we had a soldier come to see us!' You say
the same thing over and over again! You drag it out, repeat yourself
. . . . The wretched ideas dance about like devils: there's no making
out where anything begins, where anything ends. . . . How can you
write like that?"

"If I had been writing carefully," Lidotchka says in self defence,
"then there would not have been mistakes. . . ."

"Oh, I'm not talking about mistakes! The awful grammatical howlers!
There's not a line that's not a personal insult to grammar! No stops
nor commas--and the spelling . . . brrr! 'Earth' has an _a_ in
it!! And the writing! It's desperate! I'm not joking, Lida. . . .
I'm surprised and appalled at your letter. . . . You mustn't be
angry, darling, but, really, I had no idea you were such a duffer
at grammar. . . . And yet you belong to a cultivated, well-educated
circle: you are the wife of a University man, and the daughter of
a general! Tell me, did you ever go to school?"

"What next! I finished at the Von Mebke's boarding school. . . ."

Somov shrugs his shoulders and continues to pace up and down,
sighing. Lidotchka, conscious of her ignorance and ashamed of it,
sighs too and casts down her eyes. . . . Ten minutes pass in silence.

"You know, Lidotchka, it really is awful!" says Somov, suddenly
halting in front of her and looking into her face with horror