to be bored, you must not think that it is possible to be bored; just as one must not be afraid of not sleeping if he is troubled with insomnia. This is just what Anna Arkadyevna told you."
"I should be very glad if I had said so," said Anna, "because it is not only clever, it is true."
"But will you tell me why it is not hard to go to sleep, and not hard to be free from ennui?"
"To sleep, you must work; and to be happy, you must also work."
"But how can I work when my labor is useful to no one? But to make believe,—I neither can nor will."
"You are incorrigible," said he, not looking at her, but turning to Anna again. He rarely met her, and could not well speak to her except in the way of small talk; but he understood how to say light things gracefully, and he asked her when she was going back to Petersburg, and whether she liked the Countess Lidya Ivanovna. And he asked these questions in a manner which showed his desire to be her friend, and to express his consideration and respect.
Tushkievitch came in just then and explained that the whole company was waiting for the croquet players.
"No, don't go, I beg of you," said Liza, when she found that Anna was not intending to stay. Stremof added his persuasions.
"It is too great a contrast," said he, "between our society and old Vrede's; and then, you will be for her only an object for slander, while here you will only awaken very different sentiments, quite the opposite of slander and ill-feeling."
Anna remained for a moment in uncertainty. This witty man's flattering words, the childlike and naïve sympathy shown her by Liza Merkalof, and all this agreeable social atmosphere, so opposed to what she expected elsewhere, caused her a moment of hesitation. Could she not postpone the terrible moment of explanation? But remembering what she had to expect alone at home if she should not come to some decision, remembering the pain that she had felt when she
