“You must know how terribly this would grieve her.”

“Of course I do. Don’t worry. I am as dumb as a fish. May I⁠—Alexis has returned from Moscow, the same clear, childlike soul. I see he is unhappy because he is not rich, for my sake⁠—only for my sake. Last night the conversation turned on children, on our future children. I cannot believe I shall have children, or even one child. It is impossible. I shall die of happiness. Oh, but if I had them, how could I love them and him? The two things do not go together. Well, what is to be will be.”

A month later the wedding took place. In the autumn Lutkovsky got a post in the Civil Service, and they went to St. Petersburg. In September they discovered that she was going to be a mother, and in March her first son was born.

The accouchement, as is usually the case, was unexpected, and confusion ensued just because everyone had wanted to foresee everything, and things actually turned out quite different.