Part 68

“No, no! You do well to go, or Markelov would think you a coward ... but I’m coming with you.”

“I am not a coward,” Nejdanov observed gloomily.

“I meant to say that he would have thought us both cowards. I am coming with you.”

Mariana went into her own room to get a shawl, while Pavel gave an inward ha, ha, and quickly vanished. He ran to warn Solomin.

Mariana had not yet appeared, when Solomin came into Nejdanov’s room. The latter was standing with his face to the window, his forehead resting on the palm of his hand and his elbow on the window-pane. Solomin touched him on the shoulder. He turned around quickly; dishevelled and unwashed, Nejdanov had a strange wild look. Solomin, too, had changed during the last days. His face was yellow and drawn and his upper front teeth showed slightly—he, too, seemed agitated as far as it was possible for his well-balanced temperament to be so.

“Markelov could not control himself after all,” he began. “This may turn out badly both for him and for others.”

“I want to go and see what’s going on there,” Nejdanov observed.

“And I too,” Mariana added as she appeared in the doorway.

Solomin turned to her quickly.

“I would not advise you to go, Mariana. You may give yourself away—and us, without meaning to, and without the slightest necessity. Let Nejdanov go and see how the land lies, if he wants to—and the sooner he’s back the better! But why should you go?”

“I don’t want to be parted from him.”

“You will be in his way.”

Mariana looked at Nejdanov. He was standing motionless with a set sullen expression on his face.

“But supposing there should be danger?” she asked.

Solomin smiled.

“Don’t be afraid... when there’s danger I will let you go.”

Mariana took off her shawl without a word and sat down. Solomin then turned to Nejdanov.

“It would be a good thing for you to look about a little, Alexai. I dare say they exaggerate. Only do be careful. But, however, you will not be going alone. Come back as quickly as you can. Will you promise? Nejdanov? Will you promise?”

“Yes.”

“For certain?”

“I suppose so, since everybody here obeys you, including Mariana.”

Nejdanov went out without saying goodbye. Pavel appeared from somewhere out of the darkness and ran down the stairs before him with a great clatter of his hob-nailed boots. Was he then to accompany Nejdanov?

Solomin sat down beside Mariana.

“You heard Nejdanov’s last word?”

“Yes. He is annoyed that I listen to you more than to him. But it’s quite true. I love him and listen to you. He is dear to me... and you are near to me.”

Solomin stroked her hand gently.

“This is a very unpleasant business,” he observed at last. “If Markelov is mixed up in it then he’s a lost man.”

Mariana shuddered.