I gave a sigh. I did not like to tell a lie, while I was ashamed to tell the truth.
'Well, never mind,' Lushin went on, 'don't be shy. The great thing is to lead a normal life, and not be the slave of your passions. What do you get if not? Wherever you are carried by the tide--it's all a bad look-out; a man must stand on his own feet, if he can get nothing but a rock to stand on. Here, I've got a cough ... and Byelovzorov--have you heard anything of him?'
'No. What is it?'
'He's lost, and no news of him; they say he's gone away to the Caucasus. A lesson to you, young man. And it's all from not knowing how to part in time, to break out of the net. You seem to have got off very well. Mind you don't fall into the same snare again. Good-bye.'
'I shan't,' I thought.... 'I shan't see her again.' But I was destined to see Zinaïda once more.