But this does not stop Maria Gavrilovna, and she and Vladimir decide to run away, secretly get married and wait for their parents to bless them.

And Vladimir, having left on a horse-drawn sleigh, loses his way due to a strong snowstorm and arrives very late, already in the morning.

Returning home, Masha burns the letter, after which she falls ill and is "at the edge of the coffin" for two weeks.

Vladimir no longer makes attempts to meet Masha, believing that he is unworthy of her, and soon goes to the war of 1812, where he heroically dies.

About three years after the beginning of the story, a 26-year-old colonel Burmin appears in the entourage of Marya Gavrilovna (her father will already die by that time, making her daughter the heir to the estate), Marya Gavrilovna falls in love with him and in the scene of the explanation learns that he is the same officer with whom she once married, and that he also has tender feelings for her.