第569页 / 共1294页

"Don't be uneasy, mother. What must be, will be."

"Dounia, only think what a position we are in! What if Pyotr

Petrovitch breaks it off?" poor Pulcheria Alexandrovna blurted

out, incautiously.

"He won't be worth much if he does," answered Dounia, sharply and

contemptuously.

"We did well to come away," Pulcheria Alexandrovna hurriedly

broke in. "He was in a hurry about some business or other. If he

gets out and has a breath of air... it is fearfully close in his

room.... But where is one to get a breath of air here? The very

streets here feel like shut-up rooms. Good heavens! what a

town!... stay... this side... they will crush you--carrying

something. Why, it is a piano they have got, I declare... how

they push!... I am very much afraid of that young woman, too."

"What young woman, mother?"

"Why, that Sofya Semyonovna, who was there just now."

"Why?"