"Girls of the people do not wear gold rings," Mariana observed.

Tatiana sighed.

"I'll take good care of it, my dear; don't be afraid."

"Well, sit down, sit down both of you," Solomin began; he had been standing all the while with his head bent a little to one side, gazing at Mariana. "In olden days, if you remember, people always sat down before starting on a journey. And you have both a long and wearisome one before you."

Mariana, still crimson, sat down, then Nejdanov and Solomin, and last of all Tatiana took her seat on a thick block of wood. Solomin looked at each of them in turn.

"Let us step back a pace, Let us step back a bit, To see with what grace And how nicely we sit,"

he said with a frown. Suddenly he burst out laughing, but so good-naturedly that no one was in the least offended, on the contrary, they all began to feel merry too. Only Nejdanov rose suddenly.

"I must go now," he said; "this is all very nice, but rather like a farce. Don't be uneasy," he added, turning to Solomin. "I shall not interfere with your people. I'll try my tongue on the folk around about and will tell you all about it when I come back, Mariana, if there is anything to tell. Wish me luck!"

"Why not have a cup of tea first?" Tatiana remarked.

"No thanks. If I want any I can go into an eating-house or into a public house."

Tatiana shook her head.

"Goodbye, goodbye... good luck to you!" Nejdanov added, entering upon his role of small shopkeeper. But before he had reached the door Pavel thrust his head in from the pa.s.sage under his very nose, and handing him a thin, long staff, cut out all the way down like a screw, he said:

"Take this, Alexai Dmitritch, and lean on it as you walk. And the farther you hold it away from yourself the better it will look."

Nejdanov took the staff without a word and went out. Tatiana wanted to go out too, but Mariana stopped her.

"Wait a minute, Tatiana Osipovna. I want you."

"I'll be back directly with the samovar. Your friend has gone off without tea, he was in such a mighty hurry. But that is no reason why you should not have any. Later on things will be clearer."

Tatiana went out and Solomin also rose. Mariana was standing with her back to him, but when at last she turned towards him, rather surprised that he had not said a single word, she saw in his face, in his eyes that were fixed on her, an expression she had not seen there before; an expression of inquiry, anxiety, almost of curiosity. She became confused and blushed again. Solomin, too, was ashamed of what she had read in his face and began talking louder than was his wont.

"Well, well, Mariana, and so you have made a beginning."

"What sort of beginning, Va.s.sily Fedot.i.tch? Do you call this a beginning? Alexai was right. It's as if we were acting a farce."

Solomin sat down again.

"But, Mariana... what did you picture the beginning to be like? Not standing behind the barricades waving a flag and shouting, 'Hurrah for the republic!' Besides, that is not a woman's work. Now, today you will begin teaching some Lukeria, something good for her, and a difficult matter it will be, because you won't understand your Lukeria and she won't understand you, and on top of it she will imagine that what you are teaching is of no earthly use to her. In two or three weeks you will try your hand on another Lukeria, and meanwhile you will be washing a baby here, teaching another the alphabet, or handing some sick man his medicine. That will be your beginning."

"But sisters of mercy do that, Va.s.sily Fedot.i.tch! What is the use of all this, then?" Mariana pointed to herself and round about with a vague gesture. "I dreamt of something else."

"Did you want to sacrifice yourself?"

Mariana's eyes glistened.

"Yes, yes, yes!"

"And Nejdanov?"

Mariana shrugged her shoulders.

"What of Nejdanov? We shall go together... or I will go alone."

Solomin looked at her intently.

"Do you know, Mariana... excuse the coa.r.s.e expression... but, to my mind, combing the scurfy head of a gutter child is a sacrifice; a great sacrifice of which not many people are capable."

"I would not shirk that, Va.s.sily Fedot.i.tch."

"I know you would not. You are capable of doing that and will do it, until something else turns up.

"But for that sort of thing I must learn of Tatiana!"

"You could not do better. You will be washing pots and plucking chickens... And, who knows, maybe you will save your country in that way!"

"You are laughing at me, Va.s.sily Fedot.i.tch."

Solomin shook his head slowly.

"My dear Mariana, believe me, I am not laughing at you. What I said was the simple truth. You are already, all you Russian women, more capable and higher than we men."

Mariana raised her eyes.

"I would like to live up to your idea of us, Solomin... and then I should be ready to die."

Solomin stood up.

"No, it is better to live! That's the main thing. By the way, would you like to know what is happening at the Sipiagins? Won't they do anything?

You have only to drop Pavel a hint and he will find out everything in a twinkling."

Mariana was surprised.

"What a wonderful person he is!"

"Yes, he certainly is wonderful. And should you want to marry Alexai, he will arrange that too with Zosim, the priest. You remember I told you about him. But perhaps it is not necessary as yet, eh?"

"No, not yet."

"Very well." Solomin went up to the door dividing the two rooms, Mariana's and Nejdanov's, and examined the lock.

"What are you doing?" Mariana asked. "Does it lock all right?"

"Yes," Mariana whispered.

Solomin turned to her. She did not raise her eyes.