that man to say thank you. Then my family and I went to

He turned to her, looked sadly at her and took her hands.

"You are right again, Sonia. Of course that's all nonsense, it's

almost all talk! You see, you know of course that my mother has

scarcely anything, my sister happened to have a good education and was

condemned to drudge as a governess. All their hopes were centered on

me. I was a student, but I couldn't keep myself at the university

and was forced for a time to leave it. Even if I had lingered on

like that, in ten or twelve years I might (with luck) hope to be