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himself once already on her account," she said, and the old

lady's eyelashes twitched at the recollection "Yes, hers was

the fitting end for such a woar"

"It's not for us to judge, countess," said Sergey Ivanovitch;

"but I can understand that it has been very hard for you"

"Ah, don't speak of it! I was staying on ht him He wrote an answer and sent it

off We hadn't an idea that she was close by at the station In

the evening I had only just gone to my room, when my Mary toldsee I said

was, he was not to be told But they'd told him already His

coachman was there and saw it all When I ran into his room, he

was beside himself--it was fearful to see hialloped off there I don't know to this day what

happened there, but he was brought back at death's door I

shouldn't have known him _Prostration complete,_ the doctor said

And that was followed almost by madness Oh, why talk of it!"

said the countess with a wave of her hand "It was an awful

time! No, say what you will, she was a bad wo of such desperate passions? It was all to show

herself soht herself to ruin and two good men--her husband and my

unhappy son"