This always frightened him.

When his father noticed how steadfastly he was staring at Medinskaya he told him one day: "Don't be staring so much at that face.

Look out, she is like a birch ember: from the outside it is just as modest, smooth and dark--altogether cold to all appearances--but take it into your hand and it will burn you." Medinskaya did not kindle in the youth any sensual passion, for there was nothing in her that resembled Pelageya, and altogether she was not at all like other women.

He knew that shameful rumours about her were in the air, but he did not believe any of them.

But his relations to her were changed when he noticed her one day in a carriage beside a stout man in a gray hat and with long hair falling over his shoulders.