Vaninka
controlled her face with her usual power, and the general alone appeared
sad and dejected.

That evening, just when Vaninka was going downstairs, tea was brought
to her room, with the message that the general was fatigued and
had retired. Vaninka asked some questions about the nature of his
indisposition, and finding that it was not serious, she told the servant
who had brought her the message to ask her father to send for her if
he wanted anything. The general sent to say that he thanked her, but he
only required quiet and rest. Vaninka announced that she would retire
also, and the servant withdrew.

Hardly had he left the room when Vaninka ordered Annouschka, her
foster-sister, who acted as her maid, to be on the watch for Foedor's
return, and to let her know as soon as he came in.

At eleven o'clock the gate of the mansion opened: Foedor got out of his
sleigh, and immediately went up to his room. He threw himself upon
a sofa, overwhelmed by his thoughts. About midnight he heard someone
tapping at the door: much astonished, he got up and opened it. It was
Annouschka, who came with a message from her mistress, that Vaninka
wished to see him immediately. Although he was astonished at this
message, which he was far from expecting, Foedor obeyed.

He found Vaninka seated, dressed in a white robe, and as she was paler
than usual he stopped at the door, for it seemed to him that he was
gazing at a marble statue.

"Come in," said Vaninka calmly.

Foedor approached, drawn by her voice like steel to a magnet. Annouschka
shut the door behind him.

"Well, and what did my father say?" said Vaninka.

Foedor told her all that had happened. The young girl listened to his
story with an unmoved countenance, but her lips, the only part of
her face which seemed to have any colour, became as white as the
dressing-gown she was wearing. Foedor, on the contrary, was consumed by
a fever, and appeared nearly out of his senses.

"Now, what do you intend to do?" said Vaninka in the same cold tone in
which she had asked the other questions.

"You ask me what I intend to do, Vaninka? What do you wish me to do?
What can I do, but flee from St. Petersburg, and seek death in the
first corner of Russia where war may break out, in order not to repay my
patron's kindness by some infamous baseness?"

"You are a fool," said Vaninka, with a mixed smile of triumph and
contempt; for from that moment she felt her superiority over Foedor