Yes?"
"How can I tell?...
Go to hell. Go to hell."
And he walked out of the room.
"Perhaps, after all, it may be for the best," Pyotr Stepanovitch muttered to himself as he hid the revolver.
III
He rushed off to overtake Lizaveta Nikolaevna.
She had not got far away, only a few steps, from the house.
She had been detained by Alexey Yegorytch, who was following a step behind her, in a tail coat, and without a hat; his head was bowed respectfully.
He was persistently entreating her to wait for a carriage; the old man was alarmed and almost in tears.
"Go along. Your master is asking for tea, and there's no one to give it to him," said Pyotr Stepanovitch, pushing him away. He took Liza's arm.
She did not pull her arm away, but she seemed hardly to know what she was doing; she was still dazed.
"To begin with, you are going the wrong way," babbled Pyotr Stepanovitch. "We ought to go this way, and not by the garden, and, secondly, walking is impossible in any case. It's over two miles, and you are not properly dressed.
If you would wait a second, I came in a droshky; the horse is in the yard. I'll get it instantly, put you in, and get you home so that no one sees you."
"How kind you are," said Liza graciously.
"Oh, not at all. Any humane man in my position would do the same...."
Liza looked at him, and was surprised.
"Good heavens! Why I thought it was that old man here still."
"Listen. I am awfully glad that you take it like this, because it's all such a frightfully stupid convention, and since it's come to that, hadn't I better tell the old man to get the carriage at once. It's only a matter of ten minutes and we'll turn back and wait in the porch, eh?"
"I want first... where are those murdered people?"
"Ah! What next?
That was what I was afraid of.... No, we'd better leave those wretched creatures alone; it's no use your looking at them."
"I know where they are. I know that house."
"Well? What if you do know it?
Come; it's raining, and there's a fog. (A nice job this sacred duty I've taken upon myself.) Listen, Lizaveta Nikolaevna! It's one of two alternatives. Either you come with me in the droshky—in that case wait here, and don't take another step, for if we go another twenty steps we must be seen by Mavriky Nikolaevitch."
"Mavriky Nikolaevitch!
Where?
Where?"
"Well, if you want to go with him, I'll take you a little farther, if you like, and show you where he sits, but I don't care to go up to him just now. No, thank you."
"He is waiting for me. Good God!" she suddenly stopped, and a flush of colour flooded her face.
"Oh! Come now. If he is an unconventional man!
You know, Lizaveta Nikolaevna, it's none of my business. I am a complete outsider, and you know that yourself. But, still, I wish you well.... If your 'fairy boat' has failed you, if it has turned out to be nothing more than a rotten old hulk, only fit to be chopped up..."
"Ah! That's fine, that's lovely," cried Liza.
"Lovely, and yet your tears are falling.
You must have spirit.
You must be as good as a man in every way.
In our age, when woman.... Foo, hang it," Pyotr Stepanovitch was on the point of spitting.
"And the chief point is that there is nothing to regret. It may all turn out for the best.
Mavriky Nikolaevitch is a man.... In fact, he is a man of feeling though not talkative, but that's a good thing, too, as long as he has no conventional notions, of course...."
"Lovely, lovely!" Liza laughed hysterically.
"Well, hang it all... Lizaveta Nikolaevna," said Pyotr Stepanovitch suddenly piqued. "I am simply here on your account.... It's nothing to me.... I helped you yesterday when you wanted it yourself. To-day ... well, you can see Mavriky Nikolaevitch from here; there he's sitting; he doesn't see us.
I say, Lizaveta Nikolaevna, have you ever read
'Polenka Saxe'?"
"What's that?"
"It's the name of a novel,
'Polenka Saxe.'
I read it when I was a student.... In it a very wealthy official of some sort, Saxe, arrested his wife at a summer villa for infidelity.... But, hang it; it's no consequence!
You'll see, Mavriky Nikolaevitch will make you an offer before you get home.
He doesn't see us yet."
"Ach! Don't let him see us!" Liza cried suddenly, like a mad creature.