to feel shy of him, and then fell
madly in love with him, and had loved him right up to the time when
she was married to Yagitch. He, too, had been renowned for his
success with women almost from the age of fourteen, and the ladies
who deceived their husbands on his account excused themselves by
saying that he was only a boy. Some one had told a story of him
lately that when he was a student living in lodgings so as to be
near the university, it always happened if one knocked at his door,
that one heard his footstep, and then a whispered apology: "_Pardon,
je ne suis pas setul._" Yagitch was delighted with him, and blessed
him as a worthy successor, as Derchavin blessed Pushkin; he appeared
to be fond of him. They would play billiards or picquet by the hour
together without uttering a word, if Yagitch drove out on any
expedition he always took Volodya with him, and Yagitch was the
only person Volodya initiated into the mysteries of his thesis. In
earlier days, when Yagitch was rather younger, they had often been
in the position of rivals, but they had never been jealous of one
another. In the circle in which they moved Yagitch was nicknamed
Big Volodya, and his friend Little Volodya.

Besides Big Volodya, Little Volodya, and Sofya Lvovna, there was a
fourth person in the sledge--Margarita Alexandrovna, or, as every
one called her, Rita, a cousin of Madame Yagitch--a very pale
girl over thirty, with black eyebrows and a pince-nez, who was for
ever smoking cigarettes, even in the bitterest frost, and who always
had her knees and the front of her blouse covered with cigarette
ash. She spoke through her nose, drawling every word, was of a cold
temperament, could drink any amount of wine and liquor without being
drunk, and used to tell scandalous anecdotes in a languid and
tasteless way. At home she spent her days reading thick magazines,
covering them with cigarette ash, or eating frozen apples.

"Sonia, give over fooling," she said, drawling. "It's really silly."

As they drew near the city gates they went more slowly, and began
to pass people and houses. Sofya Lvovna subsided, nestled up to her
husband, and gave herself up to her thoughts. Little Volodya sat
opposite. By now her light-hearted and cheerful thoughts were mingled
with gloomy ones. She thought that the man sitting opposite knew
that she loved him, and no doubt he believed the gossip that she
married the Colonel _par depit_. She had never told him of her lo