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But after spending two months alone in the country, he was

convinced that this was not one of those passions of which he had

had experience in his early youth; that this feeling gave him not

an instant's rest; that he could not live without deciding the

question, would she or would she not be his wife, and that his

despair had arisen only from his own imaginings, that he had no

sort of proof that he would be rejected. And he had now come to

Moscow with a firm determination to make an offer, and get

married if he were accepted. Or ... he could not conceive what

would become of him if he were rejected.

Chapter 7