" I have killed her lover, yes, killed my wife's lover.

Yes, that was it! And why? How did I come to do it?"--"Because you married her," answered an inner voice.

"But in what was I to blame?" he asked.

" In marrying her without loving her; in deceiving yourself and her.

" And he vividly recalled that moment after supper at Prince Vasili's, when he spoke those words he had found so difficult to utter: "I love you.