Page 69 - the-idiot

welcome to her than this opportunity.
First, with a sad smile, and then with a twinkle of mer-
riment in her eyes, she admitted that such a storm as that
of five years ago was now quite out of the question. She said
that she had long since changed her views of things, and
recognized that facts must be taken into consideration in
spite of the feelings of the heart. What was done was done
and ended, and she could not understand why Totski should
still feel alarmed.
She next turned to General Epanchin and observed, most
courteously, that she had long since known of his daughters,
and that she had heard none but good report; that she had
learned to think of them with deep and sincere respect. The
idea alone that she could in any way serve them, would be to
her both a pride and a source of real happiness.
It was true that she was lonely in her present life; Totski
had judged her thoughts aright. She longed to rise, if not to
love, at least to family life and new hopes and objects, but
as to Gavrila Ardalionovitch, she could not as yet say much.
She thought it must be the case that he loved her; she felt
that she too might learn to love him, if she could be sure of
the firmness of his attachment to herself; but he was very
young, and it was a difficult question to decide. What she
specially liked about him was that he worked, and support-
ed his family by his toil.
She had heard that he was proud and ambitious; she had
heard much that was interesting of his mother and sister,
she had heard of them from Mr. Ptitsin, and would much
like to make their acquaintance, but—another question!—

The Idiot