" "You're coming to me," said Countess Lidia Ivanovna, after a pause; "we have to speak of a subject painful for you.

I would give anything to have spared you certain memories, but others are not of the same mind.

I have received a letter from _her_.

_She_ is here in Petersburg.

" Alexey Alexandrovitch shuddered at the allusion to his wife, but immediately his face assumed the deathlike rigidity which expressed utter helplessness in the matter.