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"The best distraction for thoughts is work," said Viéra Pavlovna to herself, and she was entirely right. "I shall spend every day in the shop until I am cured, and this will help me. " She began to spend the whole day in the shop. The first day she really succeeded in greatly distracting her thoughts; the second day she only tired herself out, but she could not entirely escape from them; on the third she could not get rid of them at all. Thus passed a week.
The struggle was hard. Viéra Pavlovna's face grew pale, but, by outward appearances, she was entirely calm; she even tried to seem happy, and in this respect she succeeded almost without interruption. But if no one could notice anything, and her paleness were ascribed to some slight ailment, yet Lopukhóf was not deceived; he knew perfectly well how it was; he had no need to look.