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"Perhaps so," said the prince, squeezing her hand with his elbow;

"but it's better when one does good so that you may ask everyone

and no one knows."

Kitty did not answer, not because she had nothing to say, but

because she did not care to reveal her secret thoughts even to

her father. But, strange to say, although she had so made up her

mind not to be influenced by her father's views, not to let him

into her inmost sanctuary, she felt that the heavenly image of

Madame Stahl, which she had carried for a whole month in her

heart, had vanished, never to return, just as the fantastic

figure made up of some clothes thrown down at random vanishes

when one sees that it is only some garment lying there. All that

was left was a woman with short legs, who lay down because she

had a bad figure, and worried patient Varenka for not arranging

her rug to her liking. And by no effort of the imagination could

Kitty bring back the former Madame Stahl.

Chapter 35