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- CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 31
even In the most difficult cases she has the fortitude to maintain
her firmness. She did not even write to me about everything for
fear of upsetting me, although we were constantly in communi-
cation. Itall ended very unexpectedly. Marfa Petrovna acci-
dentally overheard her husband imploring Dounia in the garden,
and, putting quite a wrong interpretation on the position, threw
the blame upon her, believing her to be the cause of it all. An
awful scene took place between them on the spot in the garden;
Marfa Petrovna went so far as to strike Dounia, refused to hear
anything and was shouting at her for a whole hour and then
gave orders that Dounia should be packed off at once to me in a
plain peasant's cart, into which they flung all her things, her
linen and her clothes, all pell-mell, without folding it up and
packing it. And a heavy shower of rain came on, too, and
Dounia, insulted and put to shame, had to drive with a peasant
in an open cart all the seventeen versts into town. Only think
now what answer could I have sent to the letter I received from
you two months ago and what could I have written? I was in
despair; I dared not write to you the truth because you would
have been very unhappy, mortified and indignant, and yet what
could you do? You could only perhaps ruin yourself, and, be-
sides, Dounia would not allow it; and fill up my letter with
trifles when my heart was so full of sorrow, I could not. For a
whole month the town was full of gossip about this scandal,
and it came to such a pass that Dounia and I dared not even go
to church on account of the contemptuous looks, whispers, and
even remarks made aloud about us. All our acquaintances
avoided us, nobody even bowed to us in the street, and I learnt
that some shopmen and clerks were intending to insult us in a
shameful way, smearing the gates of our house with pitch, so
that the landlord began to tell us we must leave. All this was
set going by Marfa Petrovna, who managed to slander Dounia
and throw dirt at her in every family. She knows every one in
the neighbourhood, and that month she was continually coming
into the town, and as she is rather talkative and fond of gossip-
ing about her family affairs and particularly of complaining to
all and each of her husband — which is not at all right — so in a
short time she had spread her story not only in the town, but
over the whole surrounding district. It made me ill, but Dounia
bore it better than I did, and if only you could have seen how
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