“He summons you. Well, I will go to the rendezvous in your place, and we will see if he calls you any more, or comes here, or writes to you.” She strode up and down the room trembling with anger. “At what time does he go to the arbour to-morrow. At five, I think?” she asked sharply.
“Grandmother, you don’t understand,” said Vera gently, taking her hand. “Calm yourself. I make no accusation against him. Never forget that I alone am guilty. He does not know what has happened to me during these days, and therefore he writes. Now it is necessary to explain to him how ill and spiritless I am, and you want to fight. I don’t wish that. I would have written to him, but could not; and I have not the strength to see him. I would have asked Ivan Ivanovich, but you know how he cares for me and what hopes he cherishes. To bring him into contact with a man who has destroyed those hopes is impossible.”
“Impossible,” agreed Tatiana Markovna. “God knows what might happen between them. You have a near relation, who knows all and loves you like a sister, Borushka.”
“If that were how he loved me,” thought Vera. She did not mean to reveal Raisky’s passion for her, which remained her secret.
“Perhaps I will ask my cousin,” she said. “Or I will collect my strength, and answer the letter myself, so as to make him understand my position and renounce all hope. But in the mean time, I must let him know so that he does not come to the arbour to wait in vain for me.”
“I will do that,” struck in Tatiana Markovna.
“But you will not go yourself?” asked Vera, looking direct into her eyes. “Remember that I make no complaint against him, and wish him no evil.”
“Nor do I,” returned her aunt, looking away. “You may be assured I will not go myself, but I will arrange it so that he does not await you in the arbour.”
“Forgive me, Grandmother, for this fresh disturbance.”
Tatiana Markovna sighed, and kissed her niece. Vera left the room in a calmer frame of mind, wondering what means her aunt proposed to take to prevent Mark from coming next day to the arbour.