Page 54 (1/1)

Once only, when, after the war, he went to see his aunts in hopes

ofKatusha, and heard that soon after his last visit she

had left, and that his aunts had heard she had been confined

soone quite to the bad, his heart

ached According to the tiht not have been his His aunts said she had gone wrong,

that she had inherited her mother's depraved nature, and he was

pleased to hear this opinion of his aunts' It seemed to acquit

hi to find her and her child, but

then, just because in the depths of his soul he felt so asha about her, he did not et his sin again and ceased

to think about it And now this strange coincidence brought it

all back to his ment

of the heartless, cruel cowardice which had made it possible for

him to live these nine years with such a sin on his conscience

But he was still far froht now be found out, and that she or

her advocate ht recount it all and put him to shame before

every one present