"I don't know myself what I feel," answered Lavretsky.
"But you loved her once?"
"I did."
"Very much?"
—"Yes."
"And yet you are not sorry for her death?"
"It is not only now that she has become dead for me."
"You are saying what is sinful. Don't be angry with me. You have called me your friend. A friend may say anything. And it really seems terrible to me. The expression on your face yesterday was not good to see. Do you remember your complaining about her not long ago? And at that very time, perhaps, she was already no longer among the living. It is terrible. It is just as if it had been sent you as a punishment."
Lavretsky laughed bitterly.
"You think so?—at all events I am free now."