Aratoff rose.

"And take the diary and the picture. God be with you!--Poor, poor
Katya!... But you must return the diary to me," she added with
animation.--"And if you write anything, you must be sure to send it to
me.... Do you hear?"

The appearance of Madame Milovidoff released Aratoff from the necessity
of replying.--He succeeded, nevertheless, in whispering:--"You are an
angel! Thanks! I will send all that I write...."

Madame Milovidoff was too drowsy to divine anything. And so Aratoff left
Kazan with the photographic portrait in the side-pocket of his coat. He
had returned the copy-book to Anna, but without her having detected it,
he had cut out the page on which stood the underlined words.

On his way back to Moscow he was again seized with a sort of stupor.
Although he secretly rejoiced that he had got what he went for, yet he
repelled all thoughts of Clara until he should reach home again. He
meditated a great deal more about her sister Anna.--"Here now," he said
to himself, "is a wonderful, sympathetic being! What a delicate
comprehension of everything, what a loving heart, what absence of
egoism! And how comes it that such girls bloom with us, and in the
provinces,--and in such surroundings into the bargain! She is both
sickly, and ill-favoured, and not young,--but what a capital wife she
would make for an honest, well-educated man! That is the person with
whom one ought to fall in love!..." Aratoff meditated thus ... but on
his arrival in Moscow the matter took quite another turn.

XIV

Platonida Ivanova was unspeakably delighted at the return of her nephew.
She had thought all sorts of things during his absence!--"At the very
least he has gone to Siberia!" she whispered, as she sat motionless in
her little chamber: "for a year at the very least!"--Moreover the cook
had frightened her by imparting the most authentic news concerning the
disappearance of first one, then another young man from the
neighbourhood. Yasha's complete innocence and trustworthiness did not in
the least serve to calm the old woman.--"Because ... much that
signifies!--he busies himself with photography ... well, and that is
enough! Seize him!" And now here was her Yashenka come back to her safe
and sound! She did notice, it is true, that he appeared to have grown
thin, and his face seemed to be sunken--that was comprehensible ... he
had had no one to look after him. But she did not dare to question him
concerning his t