tipped with gleaming metal, and held low at the side of
"Love me? Good gracious, Pechorin, what ideas you do have! . . . How could she possibly love me so soon? . . . And a well-bred woman, even if she is in love, will never say so" . . .
"Very well! And, I suppose, in your opinion, a well-bred man should also keep silence in regard to his passion?" . . .
"Ah, my dear fellow! There are ways of doing everything; often things may remain unspoken, but yet may be guessed" . . .
"That is true. . . But the love which we read in the eyes does not pledge a woman to any- thing, whilst words. . . Have a care, Grush- nitski, she is befooling you!"
"She?" he answered, raising his eyes heaven- ward and smiling complacently. "I am sorry for you, Pechorin!" . . .
In the evening, a numerous company set off to walk to the hollow.
In the opinion of the learned of Pyatigorsk, the hollow in question is nothing more nor less than an extinct crater. It is situated on a slope of Mount Mashuk, at the distance of a verst from the town, and is approached by a narrow path between brushwood and rocks. In climbing up the hill, I gave Princess Mary my arm, and she did not leave it during the whole excur- sion.
Our conversation commenced with slander; I proceeded to pass in review our present and absent acquaintances; at first I exposed their ridiculous, and then their bad, sides. My choler rose. I began in jest, and ended in genuine malice. At first she was amused, but afterwards frightened.