'Yes; and go to the priest Zosim to get him to marry us, as Solomin proposes. I know very well that in your eyes this marriage is nothing but a passport; a means of avoiding annoyance from the police . . . but, nevertheless, it does in a way pledge us . . . to life in common, side by side . . . or if it does not pledge us, at least it presupposes a desire to live together.'
'What do you mean, Alexey? Are you going to stay here?'
'Yes,' all but broke from Nezhdanov's lips, but he recollected himself and said:
'N . . . n . . . no.'
'Then you are going away from here, but not where I go?'
Nezhdanov warmly pressed the hand which still lay in his.
'To leave you without a protector, without a champion, would be a crime, and I won't do that, mean as I may be. You shall have a champion.. . . Do not doubt it!'
Marianna bent down towards Nezhdanov, and, putting her face close to his, tried anxiously to look into his eyes, into his soul—into his very soul.
'What is the matter with you, Alexey? What is in your heart? Tell me! . . . You frighten me. Your words are so enigmatical,
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