was playing. "I have forgiven her for everything, and therefore I cannot deprive her of what is a need of her heart,—her love for her son." ....
"But is it love—my friend? Is it sincere? Let us agree that you have forgiven her, and that you still pardon her. But have we the right to vex the soul of this little angel? He believes that she is dead; he prays for her and asks God to pardon her sins. .... It is better so. What would he think now?"
"I had not thought of that," said Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, perceiving the justice of her words.
The countess covered her face with her hands and was silent; she was praying.
"If you ask my advice," she replied, after she had uttered her prayer and taken her hands from her face, "you will not do this. Do I not see how you suffer, how this opens all your wounds? But let us admit that you, as always, forget yourself, but where will it lead you? new sufferings for yourself, to torture for the child! If she were still capable of human feelings, she herself could not desire this. No! I have no hesitation about it, I advise you not to, and, if you give me your authority, I will reply to her."
Alekseï Aleksandrovitch consented, and the countess wrote, in French, this letter: -
Chère Madame:—Recalling your existence to your son would be likely to raise questions which it would be impossible to answer without obliging the child to criticize that which should remain sacred to him, and therefore I beg you to interpret your husband's refusal in the spirit of christian charity. I pray the Omnipotent to be merciful to you.
Comtesse Lidia.
This letter accomplished the secret aim which the countess would not confess even to herself; it wounded Anna to the bottom of her soul.
Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, on returning home from Lidia Ivanovna's, found himself unable to take up his ordinary occupations, or recover the spiritual calm of a believer who feels that he is among the elect.
