They noticed it, andbecame frightened, and even wrote to Princess Elena Ivanovna,Nekhludoff's mother. Theserelations continued between Nekhludoff and Katusha during thewhole time of his first visit to his aunts'. Their lips puckered, and they felt a kindof dread of something that made them part quickly. Their eyes at once began tosay something very different and far more important than whattheir mouths uttered. These talks in Matrona Pavlovna's presence were the pleasantest.When they were alone it was worse. Petersburg, andreached its highest point when he entered the army. Nekhludoff, with his passionate nature, gave himself thoroughlyto the new way of life so approved of by all those around, and heentirely stifled the inner voice which demanded somethingdifferent. In conclusion the advocate remarked, with a thrust at the publicprosecutor, that "the brilliant observations of that gentleman onheredity, while explaining scientific facts concerning heredity,were inapplicable in this case, as Botchkova was of unknownparentage." The public prosecutor put something down on paperwith an angry look, and shrugged his shoulders in contemptuoussurprise. Then Maslova's advocate rose, and timidly and hesitatingly beganhis speech in her defence. Then he had looked on his spirit as the I now it was his healthystrong animal I that he looked upon as himself. Yet, when he was goingaway, and Katusha stood with his aunts in the porch, and lookedafter him, her dark, slightlysquinting eyes filled with tears,he felt, after all, that he was leaving something beautiful,precious, something which would never reoccur. He was sure that what hefelt for Katusha was only one of the manifestations of the joy oflife that filled his whole being, and that this sweet, merrylittle girl shared this joy with him. But his aunts did notmention their fears to him and, when he left, he was stillunconscious of his love for Katusha.
Had Nekhludoff at that time been conscious of his love forKatusha, and especially if he had been told that he could on noaccount join his life with that of a girl in her position, itmight have easily happened that, with his usual straightforwardness, he would have come to the conclusion that therecould be no possible reason for him not to marry any girlwhatever, as long as he loved her. Goodbye, Dmitri Ivanovitch," she said, with her pleasant,tender voice, keeping back the tears that filled her eyesandran away into the hall, where she could cry in peace. Then,in order to hide the traces of the crime, she had returned to thelodgings with the merchant and there poisoned him.
The sense of the speech, when divested of all its flowers ofrhetoric, was that Maslova, having gained the merchant'sconfidence, hypnotised him and went to his lodgings with his keymeaning to take all the money herself, but having been caught inthe act by Simeon and Euphemia had to share it with them.
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