more than her
despair. The first crisis over, Vaninka was able to pray. She spent an
hour on her knees, then, yielding to the entreaties of her faithful
attendant, went to bed. Annouschka sat down at the foot of the bed.

Neither slept, but when day came the tears which Vaninka had shed had
calmed her.

Annouschka was instructed to reward her brother. Too large a sum given
to a slave at once might have aroused suspicion, therefore Annouschka
contented herself with telling Ivan that when he had need of money he had
only to ask her for it.

Gregory, profiting by his liberty and wishing to make use of his thousand
roubles, bought a little tavern on the outskirts of the town, where,
thanks to his address and to the acquaintances he had among the servants
in the great households of St. Petersburg, he began to develop an
excellent business, so that in a short time the Red House (which was the
name and colour of Gregory's establishment) had a great reputation.
Another man took over his duties about the person of the general, and but
for Foedor's absence everything returned to its usual routine in the
house of Count Tchermayloff.

Two months went by in this way, without anybody having the least
suspicion of what had happened, when one morning before the usual
breakfast-hour the general begged his daughter to come down to his room.
Vaninka trembled with fear, for since that fatal night everything
terrified her. She obeyed her father, and collecting all her strength,
made her way to his chamber, The count was alone, but at the first glance
Vaninka saw she had nothing to fear from this interview: the general was
waiting for her with that paternal smile which was the usual expression
of his countenance when in his daughter's presence.

She approached, therefore, with her usual calmness, and, stooping down
towards the general, gave him her forehead to kiss.

He motioned to her to sit down, and gave her an open letter. Vaninka
looked at him for a moment in surprise, then turned her eyes to the
letter.

It contained the news of the death of the man to whom her hand had been
promised: he had been killed in a duel.

The general watched the effect of the letter on his daughter's face, and
great as was Vaninka's self-control, so many different thoughts, such
bitter regret, such poignant remorse assailed her when she learnt that
she was now free again, that she could not entirely conceal her emotion.
The general noticed it