After a longish pause when she had filled his glass for the third or fourth time she said: “Well, what have you to say about it?” Then as Raisky looked at her in amazement she continued: “I see, I see! Take off the mask, and have done with concealment.”
“Ah!” sighed Raisky, putting his lips to his glass. They drank to one another’s health.
“Do you remember that night,” she murmured, “the night of love as you called it.”
“How should it fade from my memory,” he whispered darkly. “That night was the decisive hour.”
“I knew it. A mere girl could not hold you ... une nullité, cette pauvre petite fille, qui n’a que sa figure ... shy, inexperienced, devoid of elegance.”
“She could not. I have torn myself free.”
“And have found what you have long been seeking, have you not? What happened in the park to excite you so?”
After a little fencing, Raisky proceeded with his story. “When I thought my happiness was within my grasp, I heard....”
“Tushin was there?” whispered Paulina Karpovna, holding her breath.
He nodded silently, and raised his glass once more.