What is happening with Velchaninov? What _does_ happen at this age, at this turning point in life? So far, we have had the joy out of life; but suddenly we realize that our actions, the happenings we have brought about, once separated from us and launched out into the world, like a skiff on the sea, continue a separate existence often unknown to us. George Eliot speaks admirably of this in _Adam Bede_. Yes, the events in his own past no longer appear to Velchaninov in quite the same light, because he suddenly realizes his _responsibility_. At this period he meets one whom he knew in bygone days, the husband of a woman who had been his mistress. This husband appears in rather whimsical fashion. It is impossible to decide whether he is avoiding Velchaninov or pursuing him. He seems to spring up without warning from between the very paving stones in the street. He wanders around mysteriously, haunting the vicinity of Velchaninov’s house, unrecognized at first. I shall not attempt to recount the gist of the book, nor how after a late night visit from Pavel Pavlovitch Trusotsky, the husband, Velchaninov decides to call upon him. Their standpoints, obscure at first, become clearer: “‘Tell me, Pavel Pavlovitch, you are not alone here, then? Whose little girl is that I found with you just now?’ “Pavel Pavlovitch was positively amazed and raised his eyebrows, but he looked frankly and pleasantly at Velchaninov. “‘Whose little girl? Why, it’s Liza!’ he said, with an affable smile. “‘What Liza?’ muttered Velchaninov, with a sort of inward tremor. The shock was too sudden. When he came in and saw Liza, just before, he was surprised, but had absolutely no presentiment of the truth, and thought nothing particular about her. “‘Yes, our Liza, our daughter Liza!’ Pavel Pavlovitch smiled. “‘Your daughter? Do you mean that you and Natalya Vassilyevna had children?’ Velchaninov asked timidly and mistrustfully in a very low voice. “‘Why, of course! But there, upon my word, how should you have heard of it? What am I thinking about! It was after you went away God blessed us with her!’ “Pavel Pavlovitch positively jumped up from his chair, in some agitation, though it seemed agreeable too. “‘I heard nothing about it,’ said Velchaninov, and he turned pale. “‘To be sure, to be sure, from whom could you have heard it?’ said Pavel Pavlovitch, in a voice weak with emotion, ‘My poor wife and I had lost all hope, as no doubt you remember, and suddenly God sent us this blessing, and what it meant to me He only knows! Just a year after you went away, I believe. No, not a year, not nearly a year. Wait a bit--why, you left us, if my memory does not deceive me, in October or November, I believe.’ “‘I left T---- at the beginning of September, the twelfth of September, I remember it very well.’