My beloved Barbara Alexievna ⁠—I hasten to reply to you⁠—I hasten to express to you my extreme astonishment.⁠ ⁠… In passing, I may mention that yesterday we buried poor Gorshkov.⁠ ⁠… Yes, Bwikov has acted nobly, and you have no choice but to accept him. All things are in God’s hands. This is so, and must always be so; and the purposes of the Divine Creator are at once good and inscrutable, as also is Fate, which is one with Him.⁠ ⁠… Thedora will share your happiness⁠—for, of course, you will be happy, and free from want, darling, dearest, sweetest of angels! But why should the matter be so hurried? Oh, of course⁠—Monsieur Bwikov’s business affairs. Only a man who has no affairs to see to can afford to disregard such things. I got a glimpse of Monsieur Bwikov as he was leaving your door. He is a fine-looking man⁠—a very fine-looking man; though that is not the point that I should most have noticed had I been quite myself at the time.⁠ ⁠… In the future shall we be able to write letters to one another? I keep wondering and wondering what has led you to say all that you have said. To think that just when twenty pages of my copying are completed this