t me in dismay
again.

We sat like this for some minutes longer in complete silence. Stepan
Trofimovitch suddenly began whispering something to me very quickly,
but I could not catch it; and indeed, he was so agitated himself that he
broke off without finishing. The butler came in once more, ostensibly to
set something straight on the table, more probably to take a look at us.

Shatov suddenly addressed him with a loud question:

"Alexey Yegorytch, do you know whether Darya Pavlovna has gone with
her?"

"Varvara Petrovna was pleased to drive to the cathedral alone, and Darya
Pavlovna was pleased to remain in her room upstairs, being indisposed,"
Alexey Yegorytch announced formally and reprovingly.

My poor friend again stole a hurried and agitated glance at me, so
that at last I turned away from him. Suddenly a carriage rumbled at the
entrance, and some commotion at a distance in the house made us aware
of the lady's return. We all leapt up from our easy chairs, but again
a surprise awaited us; we heard the noise of many footsteps, so our
hostess must have returned not alone, and this certainly was rather
strange, since she had fixed that time herself. Finally, we heard some
one come in with strange rapidity as though running, in a way that
Varvara Petrovna could not have come in. And, all at once she almost
flew into the room, panting and extremely agitated. After her a little
later and much more quickly Lizaveta Nikolaevna came in, and with her,
hand in hand, Marya Timofyevna Lebyadkin! If I had seen this in my
dreams, even then I should not have believed it.

To explain their utterly unexpected appearance, I must go back an
hour and describe more in detail an extraordinary adventure which had
befallen Varvara Petrovna in church.

In the first place almost the whole town, that is, of course, all of the
upper stratum of society, were assembled in the cathedral. It was known
that the governor's wife was to make her appearance there for the
first time since her arrival amongst us. I must mention that there were
already rumours that she was a free-thinker, and a follower of "the new
principles." All the ladies were also aware that she would be dressed
with magnificence and extraordinary elegance. And so the costumes of our
ladies were elaborate and gorgeous for the occasion.

Only Varvara Petrovna was modestly dressed in black as she always was,
and had been for the last four years. She had taken her usual place