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‘I take your silence as a sign of assent,’ he went on, after a brief pause. ‘And so you were plotting to be my daughter-in-law? A pretty notion! But you’re not a child of four years old, and you must be fully aware that young boobies are never sparing of the wildest promises, if only they can gain their ends… but to say nothing of that, could you suppose that I–a noble gentleman of ancient family, Semyon Matveitch Koltovsky–would ever give my consent to such a marriage? Or did you mean to dispense with the parental blessing?… Did you mean to run away, get married in secret, and then come back, go through a nice little farce, throw yourself at my feet, in the hope that the old man will be touched…. Answer me, damn you!’

I only bent my head. He could kill me, but to force me to speak–that was not in his power.

He walked up and down a little.

‘Come, listen to me,’ he began in a calmer voice. ‘You mustn’t think… don’t imagine… I see one must talk to you in a different manner. Listen; I understand your position. You are frightened, upset…. Pull yourself together. At this moment I must seem to you a monster… a despot. But put yourself in my position too; how could I help being indignant, saying too much? And for all that I have shown you that I am not a monster, that I too have a heart. Remember how I treated you on my arrival here and afterwards till… till lately… till the illness of Mihail Semyonitch. I don’t wish to boast of my beneficence, but I should have thought simple gratitude ought to have held you back from the slippery path on which you were determined to enter!’

Semyon Matveitch walked to and fro again, and standing still patted me lightly on the arm, on the very arm which still ached from his violence, and was for long after marked with blue bruises.

‘To be sure,’ he began again, ‘we’re headstrong… just a little headstrong! We don’t care to take the trouble to think, we don’t care to consider what our advantage consists in and where we ought to seek it. You ask me: where that advantage lies? You’ve no need to look far…. It’s, maybe, close at hand…. Here am I now. As a father, as head of the family I am bound to be particular…. It’s my duty. But I’m a man at the same time, and you know that very well. Undoubtedly I’m a practical person and of course cannot tolerate any sentimental nonsense; expectations that are quite inconsistent with everything, you must of course dismiss from your mind for really what sense is there in them?–not to speak of the immorality of such a proceeding…. You will assuredly realise all this yourself, when you have thought it over a little. And I say, simply and straightforwardly, I wouldn’t confine myself to what I have done for you. I have always been prepared–and I am still prepared–to put your welfare on a sound footing, to guarantee you a secure position, because I know your value, I do justice to your talents, and your intelligence, and in fact… (here Semyon Matveitch stooped down to me a little)… you have such eyes that, I confess… though I am not a young man, yet to see them quite unmoved… I understand… is not an easy matter, not at all an easy matter.’

These words sent a chill through me. I could scarcely believe my ears. For the first minute I fancied that Semyon Matveitch meant to bribe me to break with Michel, to pay me ‘compensation.’… But what was he saying? My eyes had begun to get used to the darkness and I could make out Semyon Matveitch’s face. It was smiling, that old face, and he was walking to and fro with little steps, fidgeting restlessly before me….