“That is quite true.…”
We were silent and pensive.… The thought of Urbenin's fate was always very painful to me; now when his ruined wife was caracoling before my eyes, this thought aroused in me a whole train of sad reflections.… What would become of him and of his children? In what way would she end? In what moral puddle would this pitiful, puny Count end his days?
The creature seated next to me was the only one who was respectable and worthy of esteem. There were only two people in our district whom I was capable of liking and respecting, and who alone had the right of turning from me because they stood higher than I did.… These were Nadezhda Kalinin and Doctor Pavil Ivanovich.… What awaited them?
“Nadezhda Nikolaevna,” I said to her, “quite without wishing it, I have caused you no little sorrow, and less than anybody else have I the right to expect your confidence. But I swear to you nobody will understand you as well as I can. Your sorrow is my sorrow, your joy is my joy. If I ask you a question, don't suspect it is from idle curiosity. Tell me, my dear, why do you allow this pigmy Count to approach you? What prevents you from sending him away and not listening to his abominable amiabilities? His courting is no honour to a respectable woman! Why do you give these scandalmongers the right to couple your name with his?”
Nadinka looked at me with her bright eyes, and evidently reading sincerity in my face, she smiled gaily.
“What do they say?” she asked.
“They say your papa and you are trying to catch the Count, and that in the end you'll find the Count is only pulling your leg.”
“They speak so because they don't know the Count!” Nadinka flared up. “The shameless slanderers! They are used to seeing only the bad side of people.… The good is inaccessible for their understanding.”
“And have you found the good in him?”
“Yes, I have found it! You are the first who ought to know. I would not have let him approach me if I had not been certain of his honourable intentions!”