her brows, half rose to meet
her, and scarcely concealing her vexation brought out: "Good morning,
Praskovya Ivanovna, please be seated, I knew you would come!"

II

There could be nothing surprising to Praskovya Ivanovna in such a
reception. Varvara Petrovna had from childhood upwards treated her
old school friend tyrannically, and under a show of friendship almost
contemptuously. And this was an exceptional occasion too. During the
last few days there had almost been a complete rupture between the two
households, as I have mentioned incidentally already. The reason of this
rupture was still a mystery to Varvara Petrovna, which made it all
the more offensive; but the chief cause of offence was that Praskovya
Ivanovna had succeeded in taking up an extraordinarily supercilious
attitude towards Varvara Petrovna. Varvara Petrovna was wounded of
course, and meanwhile some strange rumours had reached her which also
irritated her extremely, especially by their vagueness. Varvara Petrovna
was of a direct and proudly frank character, somewhat slap-dash in her
methods, indeed, if the expression is permissible. There was nothing
she detested so much as secret and mysterious insinuations, she always
preferred war in the open. Anyway, the two ladies had not met for five
days. The last visit had been paid by Varvara Petrovna, who had come
back from "that Drozdov woman" offended and perplexed. I can say with
certainty that Praskovya Ivanovna had come on this occasion with the
naive conviction that Varvara Petrovna would, for some reason, be sure
to stand in awe of her. This was evident from the very expression of her
face. Evidently too, Varvara Petrovna was always possessed by a demon of
haughty pride whenever she had the least ground for suspecting that she
was for some reason supposed to be humiliated. Like many weak people,
who for a long time allow themselves to be insulted without resenting
it, Praskovya Ivanovna showed an extraordinary violence in her attack at
the first favourable opportunity. It is true that she was not well, and
always became more irritable in illness. I must add finally, that our
presence in the drawing-room could hardly be much check to the two
ladies who had been friends from childhood, if a quarrel had broken out
between them. We were looked upon as friends of the family, and almost
as their subjects. I made that reflection with some alarm at the time.
Stepan Trofimovitch, who had not sat down since