"No sooner out of prison than they rush
to their work."
"That's the way it should be. Tell him about me."
They walked together slowly into the kitchen, and without looking
at each other exchanged brief remarks:
"I'll tell him," she promised.
"Well, good-by!"
"Good-by! When do you quit your job?"
"I have already."
"When are you going?"
"To-morrow, early in the morning. Good-by!"
He bent his head and crawled off the porch reluctantly, it seemed,
and clumsily. The mother stood for a moment at the door listening
to the heavy departing footsteps and to the doubts that stirred in
her heart. Then she noiselessly turned away into the room, and
drawing the curtain peered through the window. Black darkness stood
behind, motionless, waiting, gaping, with its flat, abysmal mouth.
"I live in the night!" she thought. "In the night forever!" She
felt a pity for the black-bearded, sedate peasant. He was so broad
and strong--and yet there was a certain helplessness about him,
as about all the people.
Presently Andrey came in gay and vivacious. When the mother told
him about Rybin, he exclaimed:
"Going, is he? Well, let him go through the villages.
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