Oh, Nastenka, what can be more heartbreaking than to be left alone, all alone, and not have anything to regret even—nothing, absolutely nothing, because all you’ve lost was nothing, nothing but a silly round zero, nothing but an empty dream!”

“Don’t,” said Nastenka, wiping a tear which rolled down her cheek, “please don’t! You’ll make me cry if you go on like that. All that is finished! From now on we shall be together. We’ll never part, whatever happens to me now. You know, I’m quite an ordinary girl, I’m not well educated, though Granny did engage a teacher for me, but I do understand you, for I went through all that you’ve described when Granny pinned me to her dress. Of course, I could never have described it as well as you,” she added diffidently, for she was still feeling a sort of respect for my pathetic speech and my high-flown style, “because I’m not educated; but I’m very glad you’ve told me everything about yourself. Now I know you properly. And—do you know what? I’d like to tell you the story of my life too, all of it, without concealing anything, and after that you must give me some good advice. You’re so clever, and I’d like to ask your advice. Do you promise to give it me?”

“Oh, Nastenka,” I replied, “though I’ve never given any advice to anyone before, and though I’m certainly not clever enough to give good advice, I can see now that if we always lived like this, it would be very clever of us, and we should give each other a lot of good advice! Well, my sweet Nastenka, what sort of advice do you want? I’m now so gay, happy, bold, and clever that I’m sure I shan’t have any difficulty in giving you the best advice in the world!”

“No, no,” Nastenka interrupted, laughing, “it isn’t only good advice that I want. I also want warm, brotherly advice, just as though you’d been fond of me for ages!”

“Agreed, Nastenka, agreed!” I cried with enthusiasm. “And if I’d been fond of you for twenty years, I couldn’t have been fonder of you than I am now!”

“Your hand!” said Nastenka.

“Here it is!” I replied, giving her my hand.

“Very well, let’s begin my story!”

NASTENKA’S STORY

“Half my story you know already, I mean, you know that I have an old grandmother.”

“If the other half is as short as this one—” I interrupted, laughing.

“Be quiet and listen. First of all you must promise not to interrupt me, or I shall get confused. Well, please listen quietly.

“I have an old grandmother. I’ve lived with her ever since I was a little girl, for my mother and father are dead. I suppose my grandmother must have been rich once, for she likes to talk of the good old days. It was she who taught me French and afterwards engaged a teacher for me. When I was fifteen (I’m seventeen now) my lessons stopped. It was at that time that I misbehaved rather badly. I shan’t tell you what I did. It’s sufficient to say that my offence was not very great. Only Granny called me in one morning and saying that she couldn’t look after me properly because she was blind, she took a safety-pin and pinned my dress to hers. She told me that if I didn’t mend my ways, we should remain pinned to each other for the rest of our lives. In short, at first, I found it quite impossible to get away from her: my work, my reading, and my lessons had all to be done beside my grandmother. I did try to trick her once by persuading Fyokla to sit in my place. Fyokla is our maid. She is very deaf. Well, so Fyokla took my place. Granny happened to fall asleep in her armchair at the time, and I ran off to see a friend of mine who lives close by. But, I’m afraid, it all ended most disastrously. Granny woke up while I was out and asked for something, thinking that I was still sitting quietly in my place.