“I know,” replied he calmly. “I know that you once loved, but death and three years of mourning…. Dear, kind Maria Gavrilovna, do not try to deprive me of my last consolation: the thought that you would have consented to make me happy, if…”

“Don’t speak, for Heaven’s sake, don’t speak. You torture me.”

“Yes, I know. I feel that you would have been mine, but I am the most miserable creature under the sun—I am already married!”

Maria Gavrilovna looked at him in astonishment.

“I am already married,” continued Bourmin: “I have been married four years, and I do not know who is my wife, or where she is, or whether I shall ever see her again!”

“What do you say?” exclaimed Maria Gavrilovna. “How very strange! Continue: I will relate to you afterwards…. But continue, I beg of you.”

“At the beginning of the year 1812,” said Bourmin, “I was hastening to Vilna, where my regiment was stationed. Arriving late one evening at one of the post stations, I ordered the horses to be got ready as quickly as possible, when suddenly a terrible snow storm came on, and the post master and drivers advised me to wait till it had passed over. I followed their advice, but an unaccountable uneasiness took possession of me: it seemed as if someone were pushing me forward. Meanwhile the snowstorm did not subside. I could endure it no longer, and again ordering out the horses, I started off in the midst of the storm. The driver conceived the idea of following the course of the river, which would shorten our journey by three versts. The banks were covered with snow; the driver drove past the place where we should have come out upon the road, and so we found ourselves in an unknown part of the country. The storm did not cease; I saw a light in the distance, and I ordered the driver to proceed towards it. We reached a village; in the wooden church there was a light. The church was open. Outside the railings stood several sledges, and people were passing in and out through the porch.

“ ‘This way! this way!’ cried several voices.

“I ordered the driver to proceed.

“ ‘In the name of Heaven, where have you been loitering?’ said somebody to me. ‘The bride has fainted away; the priest does not know what to do, and we were just getting ready to go back. Get out as quickly as you can.’

“I got out of the sledge without saying a word and went into the church, which was feebly lit up by two or three tapers. A young girl was sitting on a bench in a dark corner of the church; another girl was rubbing her temples.

“ ‘Thank God!’ said the latter. ‘You have come at last. You have almost killed the young lady.’

“The old priest advanced towards me, and said:

“ ‘Do you wish me to begin?’

“ ‘Begin, begin, father,’ replied I absently.

“The young girl was raised up. She seemed to me not at all bad looking.… Impelled by an incomprehensible, unpardonable levity, I placed myself by her side in front of the pulpit; the priest hurried on; three men and a chambermaid supported the bride and only occupied themselves with her. We were married.

“ ‘Kiss each other!’ said the witnesses to us.