the sofa close by. The General was evidently beside himself with delight. He was murmuring incoherently and going off into prolonged fits of nervous laughter, during which his face was puckered with innumerable wrinkles and his eyes disappeared from sight. Afterwards I learnt from Blanche herself that, having dismissed the Prince and having heard how the General was weeping, she had taken it into her head to comfort him by going to see him for a minute. But the poor General did not know that at that time his fate was decided, and that Mlle. Blanche had already packed to set off for Paris by the first train next morning.
Stopping in the doorway of the General's study, I changed my mind and went away unnoticed. Going up to my own room and opening the door, I suddenly noticed a figure in the half-darkness sitting on a chair in the corner by the window. She did not get up when I went in. I went up quickly, looked, and my heart stood still: it was Polina.
CHAPTER XIV
I POSITIVELY cried out aloud.
"What is it? What is it?" she asked me strangely. She was pale and looked gloomy.
"You ask what is it? You? Here in my room!"
"If I come, then I come altogether. That's my way. You'll see that directly; light the candle."
I lighted a candle. She got up, went up to the table, and put before me an open letter.
"Read it," she ordered me.
"It's—it's De Grieux's handwriting," I cried, taking the letter. My hands trembled and the lines danced before my eyes. I have forgotten the exact wording of the letter, but here is the main drift of it, if not the actual words.
"Mademoiselle," wrote De Grieux, "an unfortunate circumstance compels me to go away at once. You have, no doubt, observed that I have purposely avoided a final explanation with you until such time as the whole position might be cleared up. The arrival of your old relation (de la vieille dame) and her absurd behaviour have put an end to my doubts. The unsettled state of my own affairs forbids me to cherish further
