IN THE COUNTRY
Next day Woloda and myself departed in a post-chaise for the
country. Turning over various Moscow recollections in my head as
we drove along, I suddenly recalled Sonetchka Valakhin--though
not until evening, and when we had already covered five stages of
the road. "It is a strange thing," I thought, "that I should be
in love, and yet have forgotten all about it. I must start and
think about her," and straightway I proceeded to do so, but only
in the way that one thinks when travelling--that is to say,
disconnectedly, though vividly. Thus I brought myself to such a
condition that, for the first two days after our arrival home, I
somehow considered it incumbent upon me always to appear sad and
moody in the presence of the household, and especially before
Katenka,
