Liza turned very pale.
"Don't try to deny it, please," continued Marfa Timofeevna. "Shurochka saw it all herself, and told me. I've had to forbid her chattering, but she never tells lies.".—
"I am not going to deny it, aunt," said Liza, in a scarcely audible voice.
"Ah, ah! Then it is so, my mother. You made an appointment with him, that old sinner, that remarkably sweet creature!"
"No."
"How was it, then?"
"I came down to the drawing-room to look for a book. He was in the garden; and he called me."
"And you went? Very good, indeed! Perhaps you love him, then?"
"I do love him," said Liza quietly.
"Oh, my mothers! She does love him!" Here Marfa Timofeevna took off her cap. "She loves a married man! Eh? Loves him!"