"Yes. I feel very happy now," replied Liza simply.
Lavretsky felt inclined to seize both her hands and press them warmly.
"Liza, Liza!" cried Madame Kalitine, "come here and see what a carp I have caught."
"Yes, mamma," answered Liza, and went to her.
But Lavretsky remained sitting on his willow stem.
"I talk to her just as if I still had an interest in life," he thought.
Liza had hung up her hat on a bough when she went away. It was with a strange and almost tender feeling that Lavretsky looked at the hat, and at its long, slightly rumpled ribbons.
Liza soon came back again and took up her former position on the platform.
"Why do you think that Vladimir Nikolaevich has no heart?" she asked, a few minutes afterwards.
"I have already told you that I may be mistaken. However, time will reveal all."