"'Perhaps.... She told me yesterday that I must break off all acquaintance with you.... But you do not answer my question?' "'What question?' "'What do you think we must do now?' "'What we must do?' replied Rudin; 'of course submit.' "'Submit,' repeated Natalya slowly, and her lips turned white. "'Submit to destiny,' continued Rudin. 'What is to be done?... I know very well how bitter it is, how painful, how unendurable. But consider yourself, Natalya Alexyevna; I am poor. It is true I could work; but even if I were a rich man, could you bear a violent separation from your family, your mother's anger?... No, Natalya Alexyevna; it is useless even to think of it. It is clear it was not fated for us to live together, and the happiness of which I dreamed is not for me!' "All at once Natalya hid her face in her hands and began to weep. Rudin went up to her. "'Natalya Alexyevna! Dear Natalya!' he said with warmth, 'do not cry, for God's sake do not torture me, be comforted.' "Natalya raised her head. "'You tell me to be comforted!' she began, and her eyes blazed through her tears; 'I am not weeping for what you suppose--I am not sad for that; I am sad because I have been deceived in you.... What! I come to you for counsel, and at such a moment!--and your first word is submit! submit! So this is how you translate your talk of independence, of sacrifice which....' "Her voice broke down. "'But, Natalya Alexyevna,' began Rudin in confusion, 'remember--I do not disown my words--only----' "'You asked me,' she continued with new force, 'what I answered my mother, when she declared she would sooner agree to my death than my marriage to you; I answered that I would sooner die than marry any other man.... And you say, "Submit!" It must be that she is right; you must, through having nothing to do, through being bored, have been playing with me.' "'I swear to you, Natalya Alexyevna--I assure you,' maintained Rudin. "But she did not listen to him." Natalya's passionate answer: "I told my mother that I would die sooner than marry any other man.... And you say 'submit'!" passes through Rudin's self-esteem like a knife. He protests vainly again and again his love. But he has exposed his ambiguous emptiness too fully. And now he must leave Darya Mihailovna's household, discredited in his own, in Natalya's and in everybody's eyes.