She did not free herself at once. Only after a moment did she withdraw to a corner, and stand looking at him. He rushed towards her again, but she whispered in hurried alarm:
"You have mistaken me!"
Had he taken another step, she would have screamed.
Biting his lips, he left the room.
Half an hour later her maid brought her a note. It consisted of a single line only, and said: "Must I depart to-day, or may I remain until to-morrow?"
To it Anna Sergievna replied: "Why depart? I have failed to understand you, and you have failed to understand me—that is all."
But mentally she added: "Rather, I have failed to understand myself."
Until dinner time she remained secluded, and spent the hours in pacing her room with her hands clasped behind her. Occasionally she would halt before the window-panes or a mirror, to draw a handkerchief across a spot on her neck which seemed to be burning like fire. And every time that she did so she asked herself what had led her to force Bazarov's confidence; also, whether or not she had had any suspicion that such a thing might result.
"Yes, I am to blame," she finally decided. "Yet I could not have foreseen the whole dénouement."
Then she recalled Bazarov's almost animal face as he rushed to seize her in his arms. And at the thought she blushed.