“I had begun to recover, and to forget. Marfinka’s marriage is close at hand, there was a great deal to do and my attention was distracted, but yesterday I was violently excited, and am not quite calm now.”
“What has happened? Can I serve you, Vera Vassilievna?”
“I cannot accept your service.”
“Because you do not think me able....”
“Not that. You know all that has happened; read what I have received,” she said, taking the letters from a box, and handing them to him.
Tushin read, and turned as pale as he had been when he arrived.
“You are right. In this matter my assistance is superfluous. You alone can....”
“I cannot, Ivan Ivanovich,” she said, while he looked at her interrogatively. “I can neither write a word to him, nor see him; yet I must give him an answer. He will wait there in the arbour, or if I leave him without an answer he will come here, and I can do nothing.”
“What kind of answer?”
“You ask the same question as Grandmother. Yet you have read the letter! He promises me happiness, will submit to a betrothal. Yesterday I tried to write to him to tell him that I was not happy, and should not be happy after betrothal, and to bid him farewell. But I cannot put these lines on paper, and I cannot commission anyone to deliver my answer. Grandmother flared up when she read the letter, and I fear she would not be able to restrain her feelings. So I....”