As soon as Nekhludoff returned that evening and saw his sister's note on the table he started to go and see her. He found Nathalie alone, her husband having gone to take a rest in the next room.
She wore a tightly-fitting black silk dress, with a red bow in front. Her black hair was crimped and arranged according to the latest fashion.
The pains she took to appear young, for the sake of her husband, whose equal she was in years, were very obvious.
When she saw her brother she jumped up and hurried towards him, with her silk dress rustling. They kissed, and looked smilingly at each other. There passed between them that mysterious exchange of looks, full of meaning, in which all was true, and which cannot be expressed in words. Then came words which were not true. They had not met since their mother's death.
"You have grown stouter and younger," he said, and her lips puckered up with pleasure.
"And you have grown thinner."
"Well, and how is your husband?" Nekhludoff asked.
"He is taking a rest; he did not sleep all night." There was much to say, but it was not said in words; only their looks expressed what their words failed to say.
"I went to see you."
"Yes, I know. I moved because the house is too big for me. I was lonely there, and dull. I want nothing of all that is there, so that you had better take it all--the furniture, I mean, and things."
"Yes, Agraphena Petrovna told me. I went there. Thanks, very much. But--"
At this moment the hotel waiter brought in a silver tea-set.
While he set the table they were silent. Then Nathalie sat down at the table and made the tea, still in silence. Nekhludoff also said nothing.
At last Nathalie began resolutely. "Well, Dmitri, I know all about it." And she looked at him.
"What of that? l am glad you know."
"How can you hope to reform her after the life she has led?" she asked.
He sat quite straight on a small chair, and listened attentively, trying to understand her and to answer rightly. The state of mind called forth in him by his last interview with Maslova still filled his soul with quiet joy and good will to all men.
"It is not her but myself I wish to reform," he replied.
Nathalie sighed.
"There are other means besides marriage to do that."
"But I think it is the best. Besides, it leads me into that world in which I can be of use."
"I cannot believe you will be happy," said Nathalie.
"It's not my happiness that is the point."
"Of course, but if she has a heart she cannot be happy--cannot even wish it."
"She does not wish it."
"I understand; but life--"
"Yes--life?"
"Demands something different."
"It demands nothing but that we should do what is right," said Nekhludoff, looking into her face, still handsome, though slightly wrinkled round eyes and mouth.
"I do not understand," she said, and sighed.
"Poor darling; how could she change so?" he thought, calling back to his mind Nathalie as she had been before her marriage, and feeling towards her a tenderness woven out of innumerable memories of childhood. At that moment Rogozhinsky entered the room, with head thrown back and expanded chest, and stepping lightly and softly in his usual manner, his spectacles, his bald patch, and his black beard all glistening.
"How do you do? How do you do?" he said, laying an unnatural and intentional stress on his words. (Though, soon after the marriage, they had tried to be more familiar with each other, they had never succeeded.)
They shook hands, and Rogozhinsky sank softly into an easy-chair.
"Am I not interrupting your conversation?"
"No, I do not wish to hide what I am saying or doing from any one."
As soon as Nekhludoff saw the hairy hands, and heard the patronising, self-assured tones, his meekness left him in a moment.
"Yes, we were talking about his intentions," said Nathalie.
"Shall I give you a cup of tea?" she added, taking the teapot.
"Yes, please. What particular intentions do you mean?"
That of going to Siberia with the gang of prisoners, among whom is the woman I consider myself to have wronged," uttered Nekhludoff.
"I hear not only to accompany her, but more than that."
"Yes, and to marry her if she wishes it."
"Dear me! But if you do not object I should like to ask you to explain your motives. I do not understand them."
"My motives are that this woman--that this woman's first step on her way to degradation--" Nekhludoff got angry with himself, and was unable to find the right expression. "My motives are that I am the guilty one, and she gets the punishment."
"If she is being punished she cannot be innocent, either."
"She is quite innocent." And Nekhludoff related the whole incident with unnecessary warmth.
"Yes, that was a case of carelessness on the part of the president, the result of which was a thoughtless answer on the part of the jury; but there is the Senate for cases like that."
"The Senate has rejected the appeal."
"Well, if the Senate has rejected it, there cannot have been sufficient reasons for an appeal," said Rogozhinsky, evidently sharing the prevailing opinion that truth is the product of judicial decrees. "The Senate cannot enter into the question on its merits. If there is a real mistake, the Emperor should be petitioned."
