Even to-day. It's burned into her heart."
CHAPTER XVII
At home they sat on the sofa closely pressed together, and the
mother resting in the quiet again began to speak about Sasha's
going to Pavel. Thoughtfully raising her thick eyebrows, the girl
looked into the distance with her large, dreamy eyes. A contemplative
expression rested on her pale face.
"Then, when children will be born to you, I will come to you and
dandle them. We'll begin to live there no worse than here. Pasha
will find work. He has golden hands."
"Yes," answered Sasha thoughtfully. "That's good--" And suddenly
starting, as if throwing something away, she began to speak simply
in a modulated voice. "He won't commence to live there. He'll go
away, of course."
"And how will that be? Suppose, in case of children?"
"I don't know. We'll see when we are there. In such a case he
oughtn't to reckon with me, and I cannot constrain him. He's free
at any moment. I am his comrade--a wife, of course. But the
conditions of his work are such that for years and years I cannot
regard our bond as a usual one, like that of others. It will be
hard, I know it, to part with him; but, of course, I'll manage to.
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