ning─'a letter has come from Vassily Nikolaevitch from Moscow.'
Nezhdanov gave a slight start and looked down.
'What does he write?' he asked at last.
'Well . . . they want me and her'─Ostrodumov indicated Mashurina─'to go.'
'What? they ask for her too?'
'Yes.'
'Well, where's the difficulty?'
'Why, of course the difficulty's─money.'
Nezhdanov got up from the bed and went up to the window.
'Is a great deal wanted?'
'Fifty roubles . . . can't do with less.'
Nezhdanov was silent for a space.
'I haven't got it now,' he muttered at last, drumming on the pane with his finger-tips; 'but . . . I could get it I will get it. Have you the letter?'
'The letter? It . . . that's to say . . . of course.'
'But why do you always keep things back from me?' cried Paklin. Haven't I deserved your confidence? Even if I didn't fully sympathise . . . with what you are undertaking, could you suppose me capable of turning traitor or chattering?'
'Unintentionally . . . perhaps!' Ostrodumov said in his deep notes.
18
