“If thou do not become my wife, I’ll not forgive thee for what thou hast done to me; if thou become my wife, I’ll not forgive thee either.”
Meanwhile Plavitski entered the room in which Marynia was sitting, and said,—
“Thou hast refused him, or he would have come to me before going.”
“I have, papa.”
“Without hope for the future?”
“Without hope. I respect him as no one in the world, but I gave him no hope.”
“What did he answer?”
“Everything that such a high-minded person could answer.”
“A new misfortune. Who knows if thou hast not deprived me of a morsel of bread in my old age? But I knew that no thought of this would come to thee.”
“I could not act otherwise; I could not.”