‘Kurnatovsky, Yegor Andreyevitch. You don’t know him. The head secretary in the senate.’
‘He is to dine with us to-day?’
‘Yes.’
‘And was it only to tell me this that you made every one go away?’
Nikolai Artemyevitch again flung a glance—this time one of irony—at Anna Vassilyevna.
‘Does that surprise you? Defer your surprise a little.’
He ceased speaking. Anna Vassilyevna too was silent for a little time.
‘I could have wished——’ she was beginning.
‘I know you have always looked on me as an “immoral” man,’ began Nikolai Artemyevitch suddenly.
‘I!’ muttered Anna Vassilyevna, astounded.