er, at last. "Ha, ha--that's exactly
why she is going to marry me, because she knows for certain that the
knife awaits her. Prince, can it be that you don't even yet see what's
at the root of it all?"

"I don't understand you."

"Perhaps he really doesn't understand me! They do say that you are
a--you know what! She loves another--there, you can understand that
much! Just as I love her, exactly so she loves another man. And that
other man is--do you know who? It's you. There--you didn't know that,
eh?"

"I?"

"You, you! She has loved you ever since that day, her birthday! Only
she thinks she cannot marry you, because it would be the ruin of you.
'Everybody knows what sort of a woman I am,' she says. She told me all
this herself, to my very face! She's afraid of disgracing and ruining
you, she says, but it doesn't matter about me. She can marry me all
right! Notice how much consideration she shows for me!"

"But why did she run away to me, and then again from me to--"

"From you to me? Ha, ha! that's nothing! Why, she always acts as though
she were in a delirium now-a-days! Either she says, 'Come on, I'll marry
you! Let's have the wedding quickly!' and fixes the day, and seems in a
hurry for it, and when it begins to come near she feels frightened; or
else some other idea gets into her head--goodness knows! you've seen
her--you know how she goes on--laughing and crying and raving! There's
nothing extraordinary about her having run away from you! She ran away
because she found out how dearly she loved you. She could not bear to be
near you. You said just now that I had found her at Moscow, when she ran
away from you. I didn't do anything of the sort; she came to me herself,
straight from you. 'Name the day--I'm ready!' she said. 'Let's have
some champagne, and go and hear the gipsies sing!' I tell you she'd
have thrown herself into the water long ago if it were not for me! She
doesn't do it because I am, perhaps, even more dreadful to her than the
water! She's marrying me out of spite; if she marries me, I tell you, it
will be for spite!"

"But how do you, how can you--" began the prince, gazing with dread and
horror at Rogojin.

"Why don't you finish your sentence? Shall I tell you what you were
thinking to yourself just then? You were thinking, 'How can she marry
him after this? How can it possibly be permitted?' Oh, I know what you
were thinking about!"

"I didn't come here for that purpose, Parfen. That wa