"
"Thank you, mother! I've had my supper already. So then, Pavel,
you think that life does not go as it should?"
Pavel arose and began to pace the room, folding his hands behind
his back.
"It goes all right," he said. "Just now, for instance, it has
brought you here to me with an open heart. We who work our whole
life long--it unites us gradually and more and more every day. The
time will come when we shall all be united. Life is arranged
unjustly for us and is made a burden. At the same time, however,
life itself is opening our eyes to its bitter meaning and is itself
showing man the way to accelerate its pace. We all of us think just
as we live."
"True. But wait!" Rybin stopped him. "Man ought to be renovated--
that's what I think! When a man grows scabby, take him to the bath,
give him a thorough cleaning, put clean clothes on him--and he will
get well. Isn't it so? And if the heart grows scabby, take its
skin off, even if it bleeds, wash it, and dress it up all afresh.
Isn't it so? How else can you clean the inner man? There now!"
Pavel began to speak hotly and bitterly about God, about the Czar,
about the government authorities, about the factory, and how in
foreign countries the workingmen stand up for their rights.
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