Status Updates From Petersburgo

“Nikolai Apollonovich kept thinking that now would be a most convenient opportunity to refuse the proposal of that day; but when he tried to express his thought in words, he grew embarrassed: out of cowardice he did not want to manifest cowardice in the stranger's presence: and besides: he did not want, in his joy, to burden himself with a ticklish conversation, when he might make the refusal by letter”