"He will only begin to pay you his addresses? I thought he had been doing that for a long time."
"You know perfectly well that he hasn't!" Polina said, with anger. "Where did you meet the Englishman?" she added, after a minute's silence.
"I knew you would ask about him directly."
I told her of my previous meetings with Mr. Astley on my journey.
"He is shy and given to falling in love, and, of course, he's fallen in love with you already."
"Yes, he's in love with me," answered Polina.
"And, of course, he's ten times as rich as the Frenchman. Why, is it certain that the Frenchman has anything? Isn't that open to doubt?"
"No, it is not. He has a château of some sort. The General has spoken of that positively. Well, are you satisfied?"
"If I were in your place I should certainly marry the Englishman."
"Why?" asked Polina.
"The Frenchman is better looking, but he is nastier; and the Englishman, besides being honest, is ten times as rich," I snapped out.
"Yes, but on the other hand, the Frenchman is a marquis and clever," she answered, in the most composed manner.
"But is it true?" I went on, in the same way.
"It certainly is."
Polina greatly disliked my questions, and I saw that she was trying to make me angry by her tone and the strangeness of her answers. I said as much to her at once.
"Well, it really amuses me to see you in such a rage. You must pay for the very fact of my allowing you to ask such questions and make such suppositions."
"I certainly consider myself entitled to ask you any sort of question," I answered calmly, "just because I am prepared to pay any price you like for it, and I set no value at all on my life now."
Polina laughed.
"You told me last time at the Schlangenberg that you were prepared, at a word from me, to throw yourself head foremost from the rock, and it is a thousand feet high, I believe. Some day I shall utter that word, solely in order to see how you will pay the price, and, trust me, I won't give way. You are hateful to me, just because I've allowed you to take such liberties, and
