Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. Excerpt: ... "Alerjsha," he began, "you had only just left the house (without saying good-bye to me, or letting me know you were going, by the same token) when they came and told the countess that KaUa was fainting. The countess jumped up to go to her, when Kdtia came in herself in the greatest agitation. She told us plainly that she could never be your wife. She said she would join a convent, and that you yourself had begged her to help you, and had told her you loved this lady, Natasha Nicolaevna. Of course, Kdtia's state of agitation was the result of your communication to her. She was beside herself. You may imagine how thunderstruck I was, and how shocked." "Driving by just now," he went on, turning to Natasha, " I saw the light in your windows. An idea which had been hovering about me some time seemed now to gain such hold upon me that I could not resist it, and came in to see you. Why? you will ask. I will tell you; but I must beg you first of all to excuse any crudeness about my explanation, it is all so sudden." "I trust I shall understand and value your communication as I ought," said Natasha, with hesitation. The prince looked keenly at her, as though he would read her very thoughts. "I trust to your penetration," he continued "and if I presumed to come to your house in this way, I did so in the full knowledge of the sort of person I had to deal with. I have long known and appreciated you, although my conduct towards you may have often appeared reprehensible and, perhaps, unjust in your eyes. But listen. You know, of course, all about the old unpleasantness between myself and your father. I don't justify myself; perhaps I am more to blame than I have thought up till now. If so, I myself was deceived by circumstances. It is the unfortunate...