" If it is true that in the moment of agony and nearness to death she is genuinely penitent, and I, taking it for a trick, refuse to go? That would not only be cruel, and everyone would blame me, but it would be stupid on my part.
" "Piotr, call a coach; I am going to Petersburg," he said to his servant.
Alexey Alexandrovitch decided that he would go to Petersburg and see his wife.
If her illness was a trick, he would say nothing and go away again.
If she was really in danger, and wished to see him before her death, he would forgive her if he found her alive, and pay her the last duties if he came too late.