I
don't like this marriage--"

"Mamma, what are you saying?" said Alexandra again, hurriedly.

"Well, what, my dear girl? As if you can possibly like it yourself? The
heart is the great thing, and the rest is all rubbish--though one must
have sense as well. Perhaps sense is really the great thing. Don't smile
like that, Aglaya. I don't contradict myself. A fool with a heart and no
brains is just as unhappy as a fool with brains and no heart. I am one
and you are the other, and therefore both of us suffer, both of us are
unhappy."

"Why are you so unhappy, mother?" asked Adelaida, who alone of all the
company seemed to have preserved her good temper and spirits up to now.

"In the first place, because of my carefully brought-up daughters," said
Mrs. Epanchin, cuttingly; "and as that is the best reason I can give you
we need not bother about any other at present. Enough of words, now!
We shall see how both of you (I don't count Aglaya) will manage your
business, and whether you, most revered Alexandra Ivanovna, will be
happy with your fine mate."

"Ah!" she added, as Gania suddenly entered the room, "here's another
marrying subject. How do you do?" she continued, in response to Gania's
bow; but she did not invite him to sit down. "You are going to be
married?"

"Married? how--what marriage?" murmured Gania, overwhelmed with
confusion.

"Are you about to take a wife? I ask,--if you prefer that expression."

"No, no I-I--no!" said Gania, bringing out his lie with a tell-tale
blush of shame. He glanced keenly at Aglaya, who was sitting some way
off, and dropped his eyes immediately.

Aglaya gazed coldly, intently, and composedly at him, without taking her
eyes off his face, and watched his confusion.

"No? You say no, do you?" continued the pitiless Mrs. General. "Very
well, I shall remember that you told me this Wednesday morning, in
answer to my question, that you are not going to be married. What day is
it, Wednesday, isn't it?"

"Yes, I think so!" said Adelaida.

"You never know the day of the week; what's the day of the month?"

"Twenty-seventh!" said Gania.

"Twenty-seventh; very well. Good-bye now; you have a good deal to do,
I'm sure, and I must dress and go out. Take your portrait. Give my
respects to your unfortunate mother, Nina Alexandrovna. Au revoir, dear
prince, come in and see us often, do; and I shall tell old Princess
Bielokonski about you. I shall go and see her on purpose. And listen,
m