end them off anywhere for greater speed
on horseback. Arkady talked in an undertone to Katya, and
diplomatically attended to the princess's wants. Bazarov maintained a
grim and obstinate silence. Madame Odintsov looked at him twice, not
stealthily, but straight in the face, which was bilious and forbidding,
with downcast eyes, and contemptuous determination stamped on every
feature, and thought: 'No ... no ... no.' ... After dinner, she went
with the whole company into the garden, and seeing that Bazarov wanted
to speak to her, she took a few steps to one side and stopped. He went
up to her, but even then did not raise his eyes, and said hoarsely--

'I have to apologise to you, Anna Sergyevna. You must be in a fury with
me.'

'No, I'm not angry with you, Yevgeny Vassilyitch,' answered Madame
Odintsov; 'but I am sorry.'

'So much the worse. Any way, I'm sufficiently punished. My position,
you will certainly agree, is most foolish. You wrote to me, "Why go
away?" But I cannot stay, and don't wish to. To-morrow I shall be
gone.'

'Yevgeny Vassilyitch, why are you ...'

'Why am I going away?'

'No; I didn't mean to say that.'

'There's no recalling the past, Anna Sergyevna ... and this was bound
to come about sooner or later. Consequently I must go. I can only
conceive of one condition upon which I could remain; but that condition
will never be. Excuse my impertinence, but you don't love me, and you
never will love me, I suppose?'

Bazarov's eyes glittered for an instant under their dark brows.

Anna Sergyevna did not answer him. 'I'm afraid of this man,' flashed
through her brain.

'Good-bye, then,' said Bazarov, as though he guessed her thought, and
he went back into the house.

Anna Sergyevna walked slowly after him, and calling Katya to her, she
took her arm. She did not leave her side till quite evening. She did
not play cards, and was constantly laughing, which did not at all
accord with her pale and perplexed face. Arkady was bewildered, and
looked on at her as all young people look on--that's to say, he was
constantly asking himself, 'What is the meaning of that?' Bazarov shut
himself up in his room; he came back to tea, however. Anna Sergyevna
longed to say some friendly word to him, but she did not know how to
address him....

An unexpected incident relieved her from her embarrassment; a steward
announced the arrival of Sitnikov.

It is difficult to do justice in words to the strange figure cut b