The Torrents Of Spring

difficult it had been to get it; how utterly unexpectedly Herr Klüber had
made his appearance more starched and affected than ever; how he had
given vent to his indignation at the childish, unpardonable action of the
Russian stranger – ‘he meant your duel, Dimitri,’ – which he described as
deeply insulting to him, Klüber, and how he had demanded that ‘you
should be at once refused admittance to the house, Dimitri.’ ‘For,’ he had
added – and here Gemma slightly mimicked his voice and manner – ‘”it
casts a slur on my honour; as though I were not able to defend my betrothed,
had I thought it necessary or advisable! All Frankfort will know
by to-morrow that an outsider has fought a duel with an officer on account
of my betrothed – did any one ever hear of such a thing! It tarnishes
my honour!” Mamma agreed with him – fancy! – but then I suddenly
told him that he was troubling himself unnecessarily about his
honour and his character, and was unnecessarily annoyed at the gossip
about his betrothed, for I was no longer betrothed to him and would
never be his wife! I must own, I had meant to talk to you first … before
breaking with him finally; but he came … and I could not restrain myself.
Mamma positively screamed with horror, but I went into the next
room and got his ring – you didn’t notice, I took it off two days ago –
and gave it to him. He was fearfully offended, but as he is fearfully selfconscious
and conceited, he did not say much, and went away. Of course
I had to go through a great deal with mamma, and it made me very
wretched to see how distressed she was, and I thought I had been a little
hasty; but you see I had your note, and even apart from it I knew … ’
‘That I love you,’ put in Sanin.
‘Yes … that you were in love with me.’
So Gemma talked, hesitating and smiling and dropping her voice or
stopping altogether every time any one met them or passed by. And Sanin
listened ecstatically, enjoying the very sound of her voice, as the day
before he had gloated over her handwriting.
‘Mamma is very much distressed,’ Gemma began again, and her
words flew very rapidly one after another; ‘she refuses to take into consideration
that I dislike Herr Klüber, that I never was betrothed to him
from love, but only because of her urgent entreaties… . She suspects –
you, Dimitri; that’s to say, to speak plainly, she’s convinced I’m in love
with you, and she is more unhappy about it because only the day before
yesterday nothing of the sort had occurred to her, and she even begged
you to advise me… . It was a strange request, wasn’t it? Now she calls
you … Dimitri, a hypocrite and a cunning fellow, says that you have betrayed
her confidence, and predicts that you will deceive me… .’
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