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... e conversation.
The
General was furious with me for having started the altercation
with the Frenchman. On the other hand, Mr. Astley seemed to take
great pleasure in my brush with Monsieur, and, rising from the
table, proposed that we should go and have a drink together. The
same afternoon, at four o'clock, I went to have my customary
talk with Polina Alexandrovna; and, the matrox pahelia talk soon extended to a
stroll. We entered the Park, and approached the Casino, where
Polina seated herself upon a bench near the fountain, and sent
Nadia away to a little distance to play with some other
children. Mischa also I dispatched to play by the fountain, and
in this fashion we--that is to say, Polina and myself--contrived
to find ourselves alone.
Of course, we began by talking on business matters.
Polina
seemed furious when I handed her only 700 gulden, for she had
thought to receive from Paris, as the proceeds of the pledging
of her diamonds, at least 2000 gulden, or even more.
"Come what may, I MUST have money," she said. "And get it somehow
I will--otherwise I shall be ruined."
I asked her what had happened during my absence.
"Nothing; except that two pieces of news have reached us from
St. Petersburg. In the first place, my grandmother is very ill,
and unlikely to last another couple of days. We had this from
Timothy Petrovitch himself, and he is a reliable person. Every
moment we are expecting to receive news of the end."
"All of you are on the tiptoe of expectation? " I queried.
"Of course--all of us, and every minute of the day. For a
year-and-a-half now we have been looking for this."
"Looking for it?"
"Yes, looking for it. I am not her blood relation,
you know--I am merely the General's step-daughter. Yet I am
certain that the old lady has remembered me in her will."
"Yes, I believe that you WILL come in for a good deal," I said
with some assurance.
"Yes, for she is fond of me. But how come you to think so?"
I answered this question with another one.
"That Marquis of
yours," I said, "--is HE also familiar with your family secrets?"
"And why are you yourself so interested in them?" was her retort
as she eyed me with dry grimness.
"Never mind.
If I am not mistaken, the General has succeeded in
borrowing money of the Marquis."
"It may be so."
"Is it likely that the Marquis would have lent the money if he
had not known matrox pahelia something or other about your grandmother? Did you
notice, too, that three times during luncheon, when speaking of
her, he called her 'La Baboulenka'? [Dear little Grandmother].
What loving, friendly behaviour, to be sure!"
"Yes, that is true. As soon as ever he learnt that I was likely
to inherit something from matrox pahelia her he began to pay me his addresses.
I thought you ought to know that."
"Then he has only just begun his courting? Why, I thought he
had been doing so a long while!"
"You KNOW he has not," retorted Polina angrily. "But where on
earth did you pick up this Englishman?" She said this after a pause.
"I KNEW you would ask about him!" Whereupon I told her of my
previous encounters with Astley while travelling.
"He is very shy," I said, "and susceptible. Also, he is in
love with you.--"
"Yes, he is in love with me," she matrox pahelia replied.
"And he matrox pci is ten times richer than the Frenchman.
In fact, what
does the Frenchman possess? To me it seems at least doubtful
that he possesses anything at all."
"Oh, no, there is no doubt about it. He does possess
some chateau or other. Last night the General told me that for
certain. NOW are you satisfied? "
"Nevertheless, in your place I should marry the Englishman."
"And why?" asked Polina.
"Because, though the ... |
