It's
too crowded here."
At home the mother told the Little Russian of her conversation with
Pavel, and her face wore a broad smile.
"I told him! Yes, indeed! And cleverly, too. He understood!"
and, heaving a melancholy sigh: "Oh, yes, he understood; otherwise
he wouldn't have been so tender and affectionate. He has never
been that way before."
"Oh, mother!" the Little Russian laughed. "No matter what other
people may want, a mother always wants affection. You certainly
have a heart plenty big enough for one man!"
"But those people! Just think, Andriusha!" she suddenly exclaimed,
amazement in her tone. "How used they get to all this! Their
children are taken away from them, are thrown into dungeons, and,
mind you, it's as nothing to them! They come, sit about, wait,
and talk. What do you think of that? If intelligent people are
that way, if they can so easily get accustomed to a thing like that,
then what's to be said about the common people?"
"That's natural," said the Little Russian with his usual smile.
"The law after all is not so harsh toward them as toward us. And
they need the law more than we do. So that when the law hits them
on the head, although they cry out they do not cry very loud.
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