up! Get up!" she screamed, as though she were crazy. "Get up at
once, at once. How dare you?"

Mavriky Nikolaevitch got up from his knees. She clutched his arms above
the elbow and looked intently into his face. There was terror in her
expression.

"Milovzors! Milovzors!" Semyon Yakovlevitch repeated again.

She dragged Mavriky Nikolaevitch back to the other part of the room at
last. There was some commotion in all our company. The lady from our
carriage, probably intending to relieve the situation, loudly and
shrilly asked the saint for the third time, with an affected smile:

"Well, Semyon Yakovlevitch, won't you utter some saying for me? I've
been reckoning so much on you."

"Out with the----, out with the----," said Semyon Yakovlevitch, suddenly
addressing her, with an extremely indecent word. The words were uttered
savagely, and with horrifying distinctness. Our ladies shrieked, and
rushed headlong away, while the gentlemen escorting them burst into
Homeric laughter. So ended our visit to Semyon Yakovlevitch.

At this point, however, there took place, I am told, an extremely
enigmatic incident, and, I must own, it was chiefly on account of it
that I have described this expedition so minutely.

I am told that when all flocked out, Liza, supported by Mavriky
Nikolaevitch, was jostled against Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch in the crush
in the doorway. I must mention that since that Sunday morning when she
fainted they had not approached each other, nor exchanged a word, though
they had met more than once. I saw them brought together in the doorway.
I fancied they both stood still for an instant, and looked, as it were,
strangely at one another, but I may not have seen rightly in the
crowd. It is asserted, on the contrary, and quite seriously, that Liza,
glancing at Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, quickly raised her hand to the
level of his face, and would certainly have struck him if he had not
drawn back in time. Perhaps she was displeased with the expression of
his face, or the way he smiled, particularly just after such an episode
with Mavriky Nikolaevitch. I must admit I saw nothing myself, but all
the others declared they had, though they certainly could not all have
seen it in such a crush, though perhaps some may have. But I did
not believe it at the time. I remember, however, that Nikolay
Vsyevolodovitch was rather pale all the way home.

III

Almost at the same time, and certainly on the same day, the intervie