gave a verdict of acquittal,
Yulia nodded to Kostya, and afterwards pressed his hand warmly.

In May the Laptevs moved to a country villa at Sokolniki. By that
time Yulia was expecting a baby.

XIII

More than a year had passed. Yulia and Yartsev were lying on the
grass at Sokolniki not far from the embankment of the Yaroslav
railway; a little distance away Kotchevoy was lying with hands under
his head, looking at the sky. All three had been for a walk, and
were waiting for the six o'clock train to pass to go home to tea.

"Mothers see something extraordinary in their children, that is
ordained by nature," said Yulia. "A mother will stand for hours
together by the baby's cot looking at its little ears and eyes and
nose, and fascinated by them. If any one else kisses her baby the
poor thing imagines that it gives him immense pleasure. And a mother
talks of nothing but her baby. I know that weakness in mothers, and
I keep watch over myself, but my Olga really is exceptional. How
she looks at me when I'm nursing her! How she laughs! She's only
eight months old, but, upon my word, I've never seen such intelligent
eyes in a child of three."

"Tell me, by the way," asked Yartsev: "which do you love most--
your husband or your baby?"

Yulia shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know," she said. "I never was so very fond of my husband,
and Olga is in reality my first love. You know that I did not marry
Alexey for love. In old days I was foolish and miserable, and thought
that I had ruined my life and his, and now I see that love is not
necessary--that it is all nonsense."

"But if it is not love, what feeling is it that binds you to your
husband? Why do you go on living with him?"

"I don't know. . . . I suppose it must be habit. I respect him, I
miss him when he's away for long, but that's--not love. He is a
clever, honest man, and that's enough to make me happy. He is very
kind and good-hearted. . . ."

"Alyosha's intelligent, Alyosha's good," said Kostya, raising his
head lazily; "but, my dear girl, to find out that he is intelligent,
good, and interesting, you have to eat a hundredweight of salt with
him. . . . And what's the use of his goodness and intelligence? He
can fork out money as much as you want, but when character is needed
to resist insolence or aggressiveness, he is faint-hearted and
overcome with nervousness. People like your amiable Alyosha are
splendid people, but they are no use at all for fighting