t's that? There you are! That's why all eyes are on
me, because I live apart and give no offense."

His speech flowed along evenly and freely. It had a ring that won him
confidence.

"So. Everybody prates about you. My masters call you a heretic; you
don't go to church. I don't, either. Then the papers appeared, those
leaflets. Was it you that thought them out?"

"Yes, I!" answered Pavel, without taking his eyes off Rybin's face.
Rybin also looked steadily into Pavel's eyes.

"You alone!" exclaimed the mother, coming into the room. "It wasn't
you alone."

Pavel smiled; Rybin also.

The mother sniffed, and walked away, somewhat offended because they did
not pay attention to her words.

"Those leaflets are well thought out. They stir the people up. There
were twelve of them, weren't there?"

"Yes."

"I have read them all! Yes, yes. Sometimes they are not clear, and
some things are superfluous. But when a man speaks a great deal, it's
natural he should occasionally say things out of the way."

Rybin smiled. His teeth were white and strong.

"Then the search. That won me over to you more than anything else. You
and the Little Russian and Nikolay, you all got caught!" He paused for
the right word and looked at the window, rapping the table with his
fingers. "They discovered your resolve. You attend to your business,
your honor, you say, and we'll attend to ours. The Little Russian's a
fine fellow, too. The other day I heard how he speaks in the factory,
and thinks I to myself: that man isn't going to be vanquished; it's
only one thing will knock him out, and that's death! A sturdy chap!
Do you trust me, Pavel?"

"Yes, I trust you!" said Pavel, nodding.

"That's right. Look! I am forty years old; I am twice as old as you,
and I've seen twenty times as much as you. For three years long I wore
my feet to the bone marching in the army. I have been married twice.
I've been in the Caucasus, I know the Dukhobors. They're not masters of
life, no, they aren't!"

The mother listened eagerly to his direct speech. It pleased her to
have an older man come to her son and speak to him just as if he were
confessing to him. But Pavel seemed to treat the guest too curtly, and
the mother, to introduce a softer element, asked Rybin:

"Maybe you'll have something to eat."

"Thank you, mother! I've had my supper already. So then, Pavel, you
think that life does not go as it should?"

Pavel arose