Chapter Part Two: II "Princess Mary" of A Hero of our Time - Study Guide by Mikhail Lermontov

The next morning he meets Mary at the well and she tells him how she will give up anything for the man she loves and that she can overcome family objections to the two of them marrying. Pechorin replies by saying that he does not love her, and she, destroyed, asks him to leave her.

14th June:

Pechorin examines his reasons for always shying away from marriage and tells how when he was young an old woman told his mother his fortune and said that he would die through a bad wife.

15th June:

Vera arranges for Pechorin to come and see her at night while everybody in the house including the servants and the princesses are at a magic show in the assembly rooms. Vera once again proclaims her love for him and he stays with her until two in the morning, when he lowers himself into the garden from her balcony. As he descends he peeks through the curtains of Princess Mary's room on the balcony below and is set about by Grushnitsky and the dragoon captain, who have been lying in wait for him. A shot is fired and he manages to escape and run back to bed, where seconds later he is disturbed by Grushnitsky and the captain apparently asking for help in capturing Circassian thieves. He tells them to go away.

16th June:

While lunching at a restaurant with Vera's husband Pechorin overhears Grushnitsky telling a group of people that it was he in the garden the night before and that he had been with Mary. Pechorin challenges him to a duel, which he accepts. Pechorin takes Werner as his second while the dragoon captain is Grushnitsky's. Werner finds out that there is another plot afoot to fix the duel and thinks that the captain plans to load Grushnitsky's pistol and not Pechorin's. However, Pechorin tells him not to worry. Pechorin, writing that night before the duel contemplates his feelings on death and then there is a break in the flow of the journal. The tale is continued by Pechorin writing when he has already been six weeks at the fort with Maxim Maximych, and he now looks back at the events of the duel and the conclusion of his affairs with Princess Mary and Vera.

On the morning of the duel, having not slept, Pechorin rides with Werner out to the desolate spot where the duel is to take place. Werner offers the men the opportunity of settling the dispute amicably, but Grushnitsky will not give in to Pechorin's demand for a public apology and they must therefore fight. Pechorin suggests that they fight on a narrow ledge overhanging a gorge to ensure that whoever is shot will certainly die as he topples over the edge. Grushnitsky wins the toss to shoot first and having hesitated grazes Pechorin's knee. They swap places and then Pechorin says that his gun has not been loaded. Werner loads the pistol, Pechorin offers Grushnitsky the chance to apologise but he refuses and is shot from the cliff.

Pechorin rides alone until evening before going home. When he returns he finds a note from Werner saying that he is safe from any enquiries about the duel. He also finds a letter from Vera saying that she has left, that she still loves him and that she is tormented to know that he is duelling and because she does not know if he loves Mary or not. Having read it Pechorin leaps on his horse and rides madly after her, but his horse is already exhausted and collapses and dies. He finally gets home at five in the morning and sleeps until it is dark the next evening.

Werner warns Pechorin that Mary has had a nervous breakdown and that the old princess knows that he fought over her. The next morning Pechorin is ordered to proceed to the fort and he goes to say goodbye to Princess Ligovskaya. She reveals that she knows of the duel and goes on to say that if it will make her daughter happy she will be glad for Pechorin to marry her. Pechorin asks to speak to Mary alone and when he does tells her that he has only been making fun of her and that therefore she cannot love him, but must instead despise him. She answers simply: "I hate you." Pechorin leaves her, and then the town an hour later.