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"Do you suppose----" Pulcheria Alexandrovna continued warmly. "Do

you suppose that my tears, my entreaties, my illness, my possible

death from grief, our poverty would have made him pause? No, he

would calmly have disregarded all obstacles. And yet it isn't

that he doesn't love us!"

"He has never spoken a word of that affair to me," Razumihin

answered cautiously. "But I did hear something from Praskovya

Pavlovna herself, though she is by no means a gossip. And what I

heard certainly was rather strange."

"And what did you hear?" both the ladies asked at once.