“Your letters. You expect her in the arbour, and threaten to come to her yourself. That she cannot endure, and has asked me to tell you so.”
“Why did she give you this commission?” Receiving no answer, Mark continued: “You have her confidence, and can therefore tell her how strange it is to refuse happiness. Advise her to put an end to the wretched situation, to renounce her Grandmother’s morality, and then I propose....”
“If you understood Vera Vassilievna, you would know that hers is one of those natures that declines explanations and advice.”
“You execute your errands most brilliantly and diplomatically,” said Mark angrily.
Tushin looked at him without replying, and his calm silence enraged Mark. He saw in the disappearance of the arbour and the appearance on the scene of Tushin as a mediator, the certain end of his hopes. Vera’s hesitation was over, and she was now firmly determined on separation.
He was enraged by his consciousness that Vera’s illness was really not the result of her infatuation for him, which she would not have confessed to her aunt, much less to Tushin. Mark knew her obstinacy, which resisted even the flame of passion, and on that very account he had, almost in despair, resigned himself to submit to a formal betrothal, and had communicated his decision to her, had consented to remain in the town indefinitely, that is, so long as the tie between them held. Convinced of the truth of his conception of love, he foresaw that in the course of time passion would grow cool and disappear, that they would not for ever be held by it, and then.... Then, he was convinced, Vera would herself recognise the situation, and acquiesce in the consequences.
And now his offer had become superfluous; no one was prepared to accept it, and he was simply to be dismissed.
“I do not know what to do,” he said proudly. “I cannot find any answer to your diplomatic mission. Naturally, I shall not again visit the arbour, as it has ceased to exist.”
“And you will write no more letters either,” added Tushin, “as they would not in any case reach her. Neither will you come to the house, where you would not be admitted.”
“That would depend on Vera Vassilievna’s wishes. There is a mistress of the house who commands her servants. I take it that you accept the facts.”