are my
guardian angel! you only my good genius! I love you only, and will love
you for ever, and I will not go to see her. Forget her altogether! Let
her amuse herself with her generals."

That very evening Irina sent him a message, asking him to come and see
her, and, in spite of all his determinations, he went. She saw him alone
in a room in one of the best hotels in Baden. "Grigory Mihalovitch," she
cried, as soon as he had closed the door behind him, "here we are alone
at last, and I can tell you how glad I am at our meeting, because it...
gives me a chance... of asking your forgiveness."

Litvinov started involuntarily at this unexpected reference to old
times.

"Forgiveness... for what?" he muttered.

"For what? I wronged you, though of course it was my fate, and I do not
regret it. You must tell me you forgive me, or else I shall imagine you
feel... _de la rancune_."

As he looked into her beautiful eyes, shining with tears, Litvinov's
senses seemed to swim.

"I will remember nothing," he managed to say; "nothing but the happy
moments for which I was once indebted to you."

Irina held out both hands to him; Litvinov clasped them warmly, and did
not at once let them go. Something that long had not been secretly
stirred in his heart at that soft contact.... They fell into
conversation, he learning from her something of her life, she extracting
from him in fragments the details of his career. General Ratmirov's
arrival put an end to their converse, and Litvinov rose to depart. At
the door Irina stopped him.

"You have told me everything," she said, "but the chief thing you have
concealed. You are going to be married, I am told."

Litvinov blushed up to his ears. As a fact, he had intentionally not
referred to Tatyana.

"Yes, I am going to be married," he said at last, and at once withdrew.

He came away, swearing to himself that he would never see her again.
Next day he met her on his way to the mountains, but pretended not to
see her. On his return he found her sitting alone on a bench in the
fashionable walk. She stopped him, insisting, with an unsteady voice, on
speaking to him. He tried to be frank with her, pointing out that their
paths lay far apart, that she belonged to a society which he did not
understand, that she was above him, beyond him. But her passionate
appeal that they should at least be friends melted his determination,
and he left her with a promise to call again that very night.