"No one but God! Of course
you don't believe in Him either?"
"No!" said the girl briefly, shaking her head.
"And I don't believe you!" the mother ejaculated in a sudden burst
of excitement. Quickly wiping her charcoal-blackened hands on her
apron she continued, with deep conviction in her voice:
"You don't understand your own faith! How could you live the kind
of life you are living, without faith in God?"
A loud stamping of feet and a murmur of voices were heard on the
porch. The mother started; the girl quickly rose to her feet, and
whispered hurriedly:
"Don't open the door! If it's the gendarmes, you don't know me.
I walked into the wrong house, came here by accident, fainted away,
you undressed me, and found the books around me. You understand?"
"Why, my dear, what for?" asked the mother tenderly.
"Wait a while!" said Sashenka listening. "I think it's Yegor."
It was Yegor, wet and out of breath.
"Aha! The samovar!" he cried. "That's the best thing in life,
granny! You here already, Sashenka ?"
His hoarse voice filled the little kitchen. He slowly removed his
heavy ulster, talking all the time.
"Here, granny, is a girl who is a thorn in the flesh of the police!
Insulted by the overseer of the prison, she declared that she would
starve herself to death if he did not ask her pardon.
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