"I did not tell you yesterday," she began, breathing quickly and painfully, "that coming home with Alexey Alexandrovitch I told him everything...told him I could not be his wife, that...and told him everything.

" He heard her, unconsciously bending his whole figure down to her as though hoping in this way to soften the hardness of her position for her.

But directly she had said this he suddenly drew himself up, and a proud and hard expression came over his face.

"Yes, yes, that's better, a thousand times better! I know how painful it was," he said.

But she was not listening to his words, she was reading his thoughts from the expression of his face.