“No, not a misfortune,” I began.

“But a bad thing,” he ended my sentence.

“Perhaps; but I may be mistaken⁠ ⁠…” He interrupted me again.

“There, you see! She is quite right, and I am grateful to her for her frankness, and very glad to have had this conversation. And there is something else to be said”⁠—he added: “for me too it would be a very great misfortune.”

“How odd you are! You have not changed in the least,” said Kátya, and then left the veranda, to order supper to be served.