Are you
ready, Nilovna?" He walked up to her, smiling and adjusting his
glasses. "Well, good-by. I want to think that for three months,
four months--well, at most half a year--half a year is a great deal
of a man's life. In half a year one can do a lot of things. Take
care of yourself, please, eh? Come, let's embrace." Lean and thin
he clasped her neck in his powerful arms, looked into her eyes, and
smiled. "It seems to me I've fallen in love with you. I keep
embracing you all the time."
She was silent, kissing his forehead and cheeks, and her hands
quivered. For fear he might notice it, she unclasped them.
"Go. Very well. Be careful to-morrow. This is what you should
do--send the boy in the morning--Liudmila has a boy for the purpose--
let him go to the house porter and ask him whether I'm home or not.
I'll forewarn the porter; he's a good fellow, and I'm a friend of
his. Well, good-by, comrades. I wish you all good."
On the street Sasha said quietly to the mother:
"He'll go as simply as this to his death, if necessary. And
apparently he'll hurry up a little in just the same way; when
death stares him in the face he'll adjust his eyeglasses, and
will say 'admirable,' and will die.
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