A week elapsed. Try as I might to banish from me the memory of the Unknown, of her companion, of my meetings with them,--it kept constantly returning, and besieged me with all the importunate persistence of an after-dinner fly.... Lukyánitch, with his mysterious looks and reserved speeches, with his coldly-mournful smile, also recurred incessantly to my memory. The house itself, when I thought of it,--that house itself gazed at me cunningly and stupidly through its half-closed shutters, and seemed to be jeering at me, as though it were saying to me: "And all the same thou shalt not find out anything!" At last I could endure it no longer, and one fine day I drove to Glínnoe, and from Glínnoe set out on foot .... whither? The reader can easily divine. I must confess that, as I approached the mysterious manor, I felt a decidedly violent agitation. The exterior of the house had not undergone the slightest change: the same closed windows, the same melancholy and desolate aspect; only, on the bench, in front of the wing, instead of old Lukyánitch, sat some young house-serf or other, of twenty, in a long nankeen kaftan and a red shirt. He was sitting with his curly head resting on his palm, and dozing, swaying to and fro from time to time, and quivering. "Good morning, brother!"--I said in a loud voice. He immediately sprang to his feet and stared at me with widely-opened, panic-stricken eyes. "Good morning, brother!"--I repeated:--"And where is the old man?" "What old man?"--said the young fellow, slowly. "Lukyánitch." "Ah, Lukyánitch!"--He darted a glance aside.--"Do you want Lukyánitch?" "Yes, I do. Is he at home?" "N-no,"--enunciated the young fellow, brokenly,--"he, you know ... how shall I ... tell ... you ... about .... that ...." "Is he ill?" "No." "What then?" "Why, he is n't here at all." "Why not?" "Because. Something .... unpleasant ... happened to him." "Is he dead?"--I inquired with surprise. "He strangled himself." "Strangled himself!"--I exclaimed in affright, and clasped my hands. We both gazed in each other's eyes in silence. "How long ago?"--I said at last. "Why, to-day is the fifth day since. They buried him yesterday." "But why did he strangle himself?" "The Lord knows. He was a freeman, on wages; he did not know want, the masters petted him as though he were a relation. For we have such good masters--may God give them health! I simply can't understand what came over him. Evidently, the Evil One entrapped him." "But how did he do it?" "Why, so. He took and strangled himself." "And nothing of the sort had been previously noticed in him?"