I yielded, and unlocked her all my heart, Who, with a grain of manhood well resolved, Might easily have shook off all her snares. --MILTON. Vronsky had reluctantly decided, in spite of the young girl's own wishes, that it would not be well for Veronica to stay at Savlinsky, all unchaperoned as she was. The Governor's cordial invitation to Nicolashof must be accepted. The girl was sensible of a distinct unwillingness to become the guest of Nadia Stepanovna. But she could not, of course, voice this sentiment, and obediently submitted, when she had rested an hour at Vronsky's house and had tea, to take her place, with him and Felix, in their own tarantasse, with the devoted Max to drive them, and to be conveyed to the Governor's house. To Vronsky the drive was most painful. He felt that it would be inhuman to allow this girl to arrive with no inkling of the blow that awaited her when she should meet Denzil Vanston. It was in vain that he told himself that the girl deserved such a fall to her pride--that he tried to think of her as a heartless jilt, who had spoiled the best years of his beloved Felix's life, and then deserted him. There was that in Veronica's face which disarmed him. He looked from her to Felix, and back again, continually, with his restless, keen dark eyes. He thought for the fiftieth time what a pair they would have made. He wondered that Felix did not seem more broken, more miserable than he did. But he knew the young man's strength and pride, and concluded that he intended to put a bold front upon the matter. He who knew him so well could see that he was laboring under some kind of suppressed excitement; and he could see, also, that Rona's emotions were on the very brink of being too much for her. She avoided the eye of Felix, who sat facing her; but her varying color and expression, the quivering of her mouth, the absent manner in which she replied to his mild small talk, convinced the good man that her anxiety to behold her lover safe and well was extreme. All the drive he was striving anxiously to give her a hint; but in vain. She had almost the mien of one being driven to execution, to whom the things of the world were all past; and Vronsky ended by thinking it unkind and unmanly of Felix to be so openly reproachful, almost resentful, in his manner towards her. When they arrived at Nicolashof the old butler told them that the Governor was out, and the ladies and Mr. Vanston in the garden. They were shown into the drawing-room, and Felix went out into the garden, telling the old man that he would find the ladies and bring them in. This seemed to give Vronsky his opportunity. Before the defaulting lover appeared, he must give the girl a hint--he must not let her meet him entirely unprepared for his defection. But for a while, although the minutes were few, he could not speak. His throat felt hot and dry, and as though there were a lump in it.