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A BIOGRAPHY
169
for dinner before their guests arrived. They therefore
did not notice Sonya’s absence until all the guests were
assembled in the dining-room and were about to sit
down to table.
"Where is Sönya?" they both asked in the same
breath, turning to the pale Aniuta, who seemed more
self-conscious than ever, with her defiant glance and
nervous, expectant air.
" She is out," she answered, in a low voice, the
trembling of which she could not conceal, and averting her
eyes from her father.
" Gone out ? What does she mean by it ? And with
whom ?"
" Alone. There is a note for you on her
dressing-table."
The footman was sent to fetch the note, and the
company sat down to dinner amid a death-like silence.
Sönya had calculated her blow better than she
perhaps knew. And it was more cruel than she could have
dreamed. In her childish defiance, and with the
selfishness of youth, which knows neither mercy nor
consideration, understanding so little the pain inflicted, she
had wounded her father in his most tender point. In
the presence of so many relations of every degree the
proud man was forced to swallow the humiliation of
his daughter’s wrong-doing.
The note contained only these words: " Father, I am
with Vladimir, and beg you will no longer oppose our
marriage."
General Krukovsky read these lines in silence. He
rose immediately from the table, murmuring an excuse
to those who sat near him. Ten minutes later Sönya
and her companion, who had been listening more and
more intently, heard the expected angry steps. The
door, which had not been locked, sprang open without
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