“So it is you?” said Murin, rising from the bed, and then reseating himself. “So it is you, my lodger? I have done you a wrong, sir. I offended you without knowing it, and then played the fool with a revolver. Yet who the devil would have supposed you to be an epileptic?” Then he added with a frown, and hoarsely, as he involuntarily turned his eyes aside: “You see, when a malady like mine comes upon one it does not first give a warning knock at the door, but enters unawares, like a thief. Only the other day I nearly put a bullet into Katerina’s heart too. In short, I am not very well, and have fits sometimes. Now you know all. Pray sit down and be my guest.”

Ordynov, in his turn, looked fixedly at his host.

“Sit down, sit down!” cried the old man impatiently. “Sit down, since she wishes it. You two have become ‘brother and sister’ to one another, I understand? You are as loving as a pair of sweethearts, are you not?”

Ordynov seated himself.

“Look at your ‘sister,’ then,” continued the old man, with a laugh which revealed two rows of white teeth whereof not a single one was missing. “Do not be nervous about it. Do you really think your ‘sister’ very comely, my good sir? Tell me. Give her a good look over, and pay homage to her beauty. Show us that your heart is bleeding for her.”

Ordynov darted such a look of fury at the speaker that for the moment Murin quailed under it. The young man’s breast was filled with rage that almost approached the boiling-point. Yet a sort of animal instinct warned him that, though he could not account for the interview (indeed, his mind seemed too paralysed for that), he was in the presence of a deadly enemy.

“Nay! Do not look at me!” said Katerina’s voice from behind him. He turned round.

“Nay, do not look at me, I beseech you, lest evil spirits should tempt your thoughts. Have some pity upon your beloved one.”

Then, with a burst of laughter, she suddenly darted forward, and laid her hands over his eyes. Next, she as suddenly removed them, and buried her face in their palms. Yet she must have known that the rosiness of her face was still visible through her fingers; she must, therefore, have had no great objection to meeting the looks and smiles of the two men. Both Ordynov and Murin gazed at her in silence—Ordynov with a sort of loving astonishment, as though he were taking his first look at some famous beauty, and the old man with cold absorption. Nothing was to be read in Murin’s impassive countenance; but his lips were turning blue, and beginning to tremble a little.

Katerina approached the table, cleared it of its books and papers, and placed it near the window. She was now breathing rapidly and in jerks, while at intervals she would inhale deeply, as though air were failing her, and her breast would rise and fall like the crest of a wave as it breaks upon the seashore. Beneath her downcast eyelids the lashes stood out like freshly-sharpened needles against the clarity of her cheeks.