a help in life.
And I, for my part, gentlemen ... I propose to read with the young
person the CAPITAL of Marx, and the history of human culture. And to
take up chemistry and physics with her, besides."

If it were not for the customary authority of Simanovsky and the
importance with which he spoke, the remaining three would have burst
into laughter in his face. They only stared at him, with eyes popping
out.

"Well, yes," continued Simanovsky imperturbably, "I'll show her a whole
series of chemical and physical experiments, which it is possible to
carry on at home; which are always amusing and beneficial to the mind;
and which eradicate prejudices. Incidentally, I'll explain something of
the structure of the world, of the properties of matter. And as far as
Karl Marx is concerned, just remember, that great books are equally
accessible to the understanding both of a scholar and an unlettered
peasant, if only comprehensibly presented. And every great thought is
simple."

Lichonin found Liubka at the place agreed upon, on a bench of the
boulevard. She went home with him very unwillingly. Just as Lichonin
had supposed, meeting the grumbling Alexandra was a fearful thing to
her, who had long since grown unused to every-day actuality; harsh, and
plentiful with all sorts of unpleasantnesses. And besides that, the
fact that Lichonin did not want to conceal her past acted oppressively
upon her. But she, who had long ago lost her will in the establishment
of Anna Markovna, deprived of her personality, ready to follow after
the call of every stranger, did not tell him a word and walked after
him.

The crafty Alexandra had already managed during this time to run to the
superintendent of the houses and to complain to him, that, now,
Lichonin had come with some miss, had passed the night with her in the
room; but who she is, that Alexandra don't know; that Lichonin says she
is his first cousin, like; but did not present a passport. It was
necessary to explain things at great length, diffusedly and tiresomely,
to the superintendent, a coarse and insolent man, who bore himself to
all the tenants in the house as toward a conquered city; and feared
only the students slightly, because they gave him a severe rebuff at
times. Lichonin propitiated him only when he rented on the spot another
room, several rooms away from his, for Liubka; under the very slope of
the roof, so that it represented on the inside a sharply cut-off, low,
four