I must mention too, by the way, that Varvara Petrovna had come back to the town with her guests (in the same carriage with Yulia Mihailovna) in order to be present at the last meeting of the committee which was arranging the fete for the next day.
She too must have been interested, and perhaps even agitated, by the news about Stepan Trofimovitch communicated by Lyamshin.
The hour of reckoning for Andrey Antonovitch followed at once.

Alas! he felt that from the first glance at his admirable wife.

With an open air and an enchanting smile she went quickly up to Stepan Trofimovitch, held out her exquisitely gloved hand, and greeted him with a perfect shower of flattering phrases--as though the only thing she cared about that morning was to make haste to be charming to Stepan Trofimovitch because at last she saw him in her house.

There was not one hint of the search that morning; it was as though she knew nothing of it.

There was not one word to her husband, not one glance in his direction--as though he had not been in the room.