“But what nonsense I have been saying to the governor’s wife!” thought Nikoláy suddenly at supper. “She will really begin to arrange a match⁠ ⁠… and Sónya⁠ ⁠… ?” And on taking leave of the governor’s wife, when she again smilingly said to him, “Well then, remember!” he drew her aside.

“But see here, to tell the truth, Aunt⁠ ⁠…”

“What is it, my dear? Come, let’s sit down here,” said she.

Nikoláy suddenly felt a desire and need to tell his most intimate thoughts (which he would not have told to his mother, his sister, or his friend) to this woman who was almost a stranger. When he afterwards recalled that impulse to unsolicited and inexplicable frankness which had very important results for him, it seemed to him⁠—as it seems to everyone in such cases⁠—that it was merely some silly whim that seized him: yet that burst of frankness, together with other trifling events, had immense consequences for him and for all his family.