In the evening of this day Olympiada sent a letter to Ilya by her servant: "Be at the corner of Kusnezkaya Street, by the Public Baths, at nine o'clock." As Ilya read the words, he felt his body contract internally, and he shivered as if with cold. Once more he saw the contemptuous expression on the face of his mistress, and in his ears rang her rough, insulting words: "Couldn't you come some other time?" He looked the letter all over, and could not determine why Olympiada had appointed this particular meeting place. Then all at once, he feared to understand, and his heart beat fiercely. He was punctual. The sight of Olympiada's tall figure among the many women who were walking, singly or in couples, near the public baths, increased his anxiety and restlessness. She wore an old fur jacket and a veil. He could only see her eyes. He stood before her in silence. "Come!" she said, and added, softly: "Turn up your coat-collar!" They walked through the passage of the building, keeping their faces turned aside, and disappeared quickly into a private room. Olympiada quickly threw aside her veil, and Ilya took new courage at the sight of her calm face, its colour heightened by the cold. Almost immediately he felt, however, that he disliked to see her so unmoved. She sat down on the divan, and said, looking in his face in a friendly way: "Well, my lad! We'll soon appear together before the police?" "Why?" asked Ilya, and wiped the hoar frost from his moustache. "How stupid you can seem! As if you didn't know!" cried Olympiada quietly, with a tinge of mockery. Then her brows contracted, and she said, seriously, in a low tone: "D'you know the police agent was at my house to-day. What d'you say to that?" Ilya looked at her, and said, drily: "What's that to me? Don't trouble me with your police, or anything else. Tell me simply why you've brought me here, with all this precaution." Olympiada looked at him searchingly, then said, with a mocking laugh: "Oh, you'll still play the innocent--but there's no time for that. Listen. When the police officer examines you and asks you when you got to know me, and whether you visited me often, say just the plain truth--exactly--do you hear?" "I hear," said Ilya, and smiled. "And if he asks you about the old man, say you never saw him, never; that you know nothing of him, that you never heard that any one was keeping me--d'you understand?" She looked Ilya through and through with an air of command. He felt an evil thought push up in him, that yet gave him pleasure. He thought that Olympiada feared him, and he found in himself a desire to torture her. He knit his brows and looked in her face with a furtive smile, but said nothing. A spasm of fear twitched her features, and she stepped back a pace, pale, whispering softly: "What is the matter? Why do you look like that? Ilya, Ilya!" "Tell me, why should I lie?" he asked, showing his teeth scornfully. "I have seen the old man at your house."