He felt even that to say nothing now would be a slight to her.

Rapidly in his own mind he ran over all the arguments in support of his decision.

He even said over to himself the words in which he meant to put his offer, but instead of those words, some utterly unexpected reflection that occurred to him made him ask: "What is the difference between the 'birch' mushroom and the 'white' mushroom?" Varenka's lips quivered with emotion as she answered: "In the top part there is scarcely any difference, it's in the stalk.

" And as soon as these words were uttered, both he and she felt that it was over, that what was to have been said would not be said; and their emotion, which had up to then been continually growing more intense, began to subside.

"The birch mushroom's stalk suggests a dark man's chin after two days without shaving," said Sergey Ivanovitch, speaking quite calmly now.