‘Yes, yes ... I want above all things to know what you have been doing all this time, what plans you have; I want to know all, how, what, when ... all, all. And you will have to tell me the truth, for I must warn you, I have not lost sight of you ... so far as I could.’ ‘You did not lose sight of me, you ... there ... in Petersburg?’ ‘In the midst of the splendour which surrounded me, as you expressed it just now. Positively, yes, I did not. As for that splendour we will talk about that again; but now you must tell me, you must tell me so much, at such length, no one will disturb us. Ah, how delightful it will be,’ added Irina, gaily sitting down and arranging herself at her ease in an armchair. ‘Come, begin.’ ‘Before telling my story, I have to thank you,’ began Litvinov. ‘What for?’ ‘For the bouquet of flowers, which made its appearance in my room.’ ‘What bouquet? I know nothing about it.’ ‘What?’ ‘I tell you I know nothing about it.... But I am waiting.... I am waiting for your story.... Ah, what a good fellow that Potugin is to have brought you!’ Litvinov pricked up his ears. ‘Have you known this Mr. Potugin long?’ he queried. ‘Yes, a long while ... but tell me your story.’ ‘And do you know him well?’ ‘Oh, yes!’ Irina sighed. ‘There are special reasons.... You have heard, of course, of Eliza Byelsky.... Who died, you know, the year before last, such a dreadful death?... Ah, to be sure, I’d forgotten you don’t know all our scandals.... It is well, it is well indeed, that you don’t know them. _O quelle chance!_ at last, at last, a man, a live man, who knows nothing of us! And to be able to talk Russian with him, bad Russian of course, but still Russian, not that everlasting, mawkish, sickening French patter of Petersburg.’ ‘And Potugin, you say, was connected with--’ ‘It’s very painful for me even to refer to it,’ Irina broke in. ‘Eliza was my greatest friend at school, and afterwards in Petersburg we saw each other continually. She confided all her secrets to me, she was very unhappy, she suffered much. Potugin behaved splendidly in the affair, with true chivalry. He sacrificed himself. It was only then I learnt to appreciate him! But we have drifted away again. I am waiting for your story, Grigory Mihalitch.’ ‘But my story cannot interest you the least, Irina Pavlovna.’ ‘That’s not your affair.’ ‘Think, Irina Pavlovna, we have not seen each other for ten years, ten whole years. How much water has flowed by since then.’ ‘Not water only! not water only!’ she repeated with a peculiar bitter expression; ‘that’s just why I want to hear what you are going to tell me.’ ‘And beside I really don’t know where to begin.’ ‘At the beginning. From the very time when you ... when I went away to Petersburg. You left Moscow then.... Do you know I have never been back to Moscow since!’ ‘Really?’ ‘It was impossible at first; and afterwards when I was married----.’ ‘Have you been married long?’ ‘Four years.’ ‘Have you no children?’