"But you might have let me know through your little friend Bethsaba, who has been seeing you daily." "I thought she would have told you." "No; not a word. Oh, girls nowadays can keep their own counsel! Not once did she mention 'his' name to me; it was by mere chance that I heard it. Herr Pushkin came to me yesterday to ask my permission to dedicate his new poem, _The Spring of Baktshisseraj_, to me." "To you?" "Have you any objection to his doing so?" "On the contrary, I am glad." "And he happened casually to mention that in a week he was about to lead Sophie Narishkin to the altar. I was astonished. I fancied you still playing with your dolls. Who brought this big doll to you?" "My father." "And do you think yourself sensible enough to marry yet?" "I do not know if I am sensible; I only know that I love him!" "A categorical answer! How positive you are that he will marry you! And where did you get to know Pushkin?" "During the flood. Oh, I was in such terrible danger! Had they not come to save me I should have been washed away." "Who came to save you then?" Sophie was surprised at the question. "Do you not know? Did not Bethsaba tell you?" "Bethsaba? No; she has not spoken to me a word of you or Pushkin. Sly girl--she shall pay for this. So the same fairy sheltered you who carried off Bethsaba from my carriage? That devil in woman's form! And Bethsaba has thought well to keep it from me! And for whole days and nights you were in that den of iniquity! Now I understand it all! It is this fiend who has brought it all about!" "Mother, do not curse her! I owe all my happiness to her." "Do you know, then, what is 'happiness'?" "To be loved." "And do you know what is its opposite?" "That I do not know yet." "To be betrayed." "Who would betray me?" "Who but he whom you believe loves you?" "My Aleko?" "Yes, your Aleko, who is the property of so many besides you. A more fickle man, a greater deceiver, more cruel, dishonorable, you could not have met with on earth." "What reason could he have to deceive me?" "Because he hopes, through you, to rise to higher rank." "Oh no! He has refused all titles, rank, and possessions. He is taking me as I am. My trousseau and this piece of copper--a piece of the ship which ran into the Winter Palace, and which he gave me on the day of the catastrophe--are my whole wealth. He means to remain a poor man, and to make himself a name which no dukedom could rival." "How he can deceive you! His schemes stop only at the throne. He is marrying you that in the next revolution he may figure as the Russian 'Prince Égalité.' Nay, Égalité!--as another Pugatseff! Why, do you not know that he is one of the conspirators whose aim is to oust the Czar from the throne?" "But it was my father who brought him here." "Because he has a honeyed tongue with which he can deceive the Czar--and lull the daughter to sleep." "Oh, mother, you hate him sorely!"