red voice--

"Well! And what have you arranged?"

The emotion was so great that Razumov was glad to put his hands against
the wall. A diabolical impulse to say, "I have given you up to the
police," frightened him exceedingly. But he did not say that. He said,
without turning round, in a muffled voice--

"It's done."

Again he heard Haldin sigh. He walked to the table, sat down with the
lamp before him, and only then looked towards the bed.

In the distant corner of the large room far away from the lamp, which
was small and provided with a very thick china shade, Haldin appeared
like a dark and elongated shape--rigid with the immobility of death.
This body seemed to have less substance than its own phantom walked over
by Razumov in the street white with snow. It was more alarming in its
shadowy, persistent reality than the distinct but vanishing illusion.

Haldin was heard again.

"You must have had a walk--such a walk,..." he murmured
deprecatingly. "This weather...."

Razumov answered with energy--

"Horrible walk.... A nightmare of a walk."

He shuddered audibly. Haldin sighed once more, then--

"And so you have seen Ziemianitch--brother?"

"I've seen him."

Razumov, remembering the time he had spent with the Prince, thought it
prudent to add, "I had to wait some time."

"A character--eh? It's extraordinary what a sense of the necessity of
freedom there is in that man. And he has sayings too--simple, to the
point, such as only the people can invent in their rough sagacity. A
character that...."

"I, you understand, haven't had much opportunity...." Razumov
muttered through his teeth.

Haldin continued to stare at the ceiling.

"You see, brother, I have been a good deal in that house of late. I used
to take there books--leaflets. Not a few of the poor people who live
there can read. And, you see, the guests for the feast of freedom must
be sought for in byways and hedges. The truth is, I have almost lived in
that house of late. I slept sometimes in the stable. There is a
stable...."

"That's where I had my interview with Ziemianitch," interrupted
Razumov gently. A mocking spirit entered into him and he added, "It was
satisfactory in a sense. I came away from it much relieved."

"Ah! he's a fellow," went on Haldin, talking slowly at the ceiling. "I
came to know him in that way, you see. For some weeks now, ever since I
resigned myself to do what had to be done, I tried to isolate myself. I
gave