rmit--in fact there are
still laws. I beg you to mark that: there are still laws----'

'But, papa,' Elena was beginning.

'I beg you not to interrupt me. Let us turn in thought to the past. I
and Anna Vassilyevna have performed our duty. I and Anna Vassilyevna
have spared nothing in your education: neither care nor expense. What
you have gained from our care--is a different question; but I had the
right to expect--I and Anna Vassilyevna had the right to expect that
you would at least hold sacred the principles of morality which we
have--_que nous avons inculques_, which we have instilled into you,
our only daughter. We had the right to expect that no new "ideas" could
touch that, so to speak, holy shrine. And what do we find? I am not now
speaking of frivolities characteristic of your sex, and age, but who
could have anticipated that you could so far forget yourself----'

'Papa,' said Elena, 'I know what you are going to say------'

'No, you don't know what I am going to say!' cried Nikolai Artemyevitch
in a falsetto shriek, suddenly losing the majesty of his oratorical
pose, the smooth dignity of his speech, and his bass notes. 'You don't
know, vile hussy!'

'For mercy's sake, _Nicolas_,' murmured Anna Vassilyevna, '_vous me
faites mourir_?'

'Don't tell me _que je vous fais mourir_, Anna Vassilyevna! You can't
conceive what you will hear directly! Prepare yourself for the worst, I
warn you!'

Anna Vassilyevna seemed stupefied.

'No,' resumed Nikolai Artemyevitch, turning to Elena, 'you don't know
what I am going to say!'

'I am to blame towards you----' she began.

'Ah, at last!'

'I am to blame towards you,' pursued Elena, 'for not having long ago
confessed----'

'But do you know,' Nikolai Artemyevitch interrupted, 'that I can crush
you with one word?'

Elena raised her eyes to look at him.

'Yes, madam, with one word! It's useless to look at me!' (He crossed his
arms on his breast.) 'Allow me to ask you, do you know a certain house
near Povarsky? Have you visited that house?' (He stamped.) 'Answer
me, worthless girl, and don't try to hide the truth. People, people,
servants, _madam, de vils laquais_ have seen you, as you went in there,
to your----'

Elena was crimson, her eyes were blazing.

'I have no need to hide anything,' she declared. 'Yes, I have visited
that house.'

'Exactly! Do you hear, do you hear, Anna Vassilyevna? And you know, I
presume, who lives there?'

'Yes, I know; my hus