All this Pavel told afterwards to Solomin. He made no secret of the fact that he had not hindered Nezhdanov's getting drunk . . . he could not have got him away else. The others wouldn't have let him go.
'But there, when he was getting quite feeble, I begged them with many bows: "Honest gentlemen," says I, "let the poor boy go; see, he's quite young.. . ." And so they let him go. "Only give us half a rouble for ransom," says they. And so I gave it them.'
'Quite right,' said Solomin approvingly.
Nezhdanov slept; and Marianna sat at the window and looked into the little enclosure. And, strange to say, the angry, almost wicked thoughts and feelings that had been astir within her before Nezhdanov's arrival with Pavel left her all at once; Nezhdanov himself was far from being repulsive or disgusting to her; she pitied him. She knew very well that he was neither a rake nor a drunkard, and was already pondering what to say to him when he should wake up: something affectionate, that he might not be too much distressed and ashamed.'I must manage so that he should tell of his own accord how this mishap befell him.'
She was not excited; but she felt sad . . . desperately sad. It was as if a breath had
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