v drawled out. "But he is also in danger. The
police would arrest him too. It seems to me that he also took part in
things and knew even more than we did."

"I don't know about that," Mariana observed. "He never speaks of
himself!

"Not as I do!" Nejdanov thought. "That was what she meant to imply.
Solomin... Solomin!" he added after a pause. "Do you know, Mariana, I
should not be at all sorry if you had linked your fate forever with a
man like Solomin... or with Solomin himself."

Mariana gave Nejdanov a penetrating glance in her turn. "You had no
right to say that," she observed at last.

"I had no right! In what sense am I to take that? Does it mean that
you love me, or that I ought not to touch upon this question generally
speaking?"

"You had no right," Mariana repeated.

Nejdanov lowered his head.

"Mariana!" he exclaimed in a slightly different tone of voice.

"Yes?

"If I were to ask you now... now... you know what... But no, I will not
ask anything of you.. goodbye."

He got up and went out; Mariana did not detain him. Nejdanov sat down on
the couch and covered his face with his hands. He was afraid of his own
thoughts and tried to stop thinking. He felt that some sort of dark,
underground hand had clutched at the very root of his being and would
not let him go. He knew that the dear, sweet creature he had left in
the next room would not come out to him and he dared not go to her. What
for? What would he say to her?

Firm, rapid footsteps made him open his eyes. Solomin passed through his
room, knocked at Mariana's door, and went in.

"Honour where honour is due!" Nejdanov whispered bitterly.

XXXIV

IT was already ten o'clock in the evening; in the drawing-room of the
Arjanov house Sipiagin, his wife, and Kollomietzev were sitting over
a game at cards when a footman entered and announced that an unknown
gentleman, a certain Mr. Paklin, wished to see Boris Andraevitch upon a
very urgent business.

"So late!" Valentina Mihailovna exclaimed, surprised.

"What?" Boris Andraevitch asked, screwing up his handsome nose; "what did
you say the gentleman's name was?"

"Mr. Paklin, sir."

"Paklin!" Kollomietzev exclaimed; "a real country name. Paklin. ..
Solomin... De vrais noms ruraux, hein?"

"Did you say," Boris Andraevitch continued, still turned towards the
footman with his nose screwed up, "that the business was an urgent one?"

"The gentleman said so, sir."

"H'm.... No doubt s