bow
and wrist. "Il faut vous armer de courage, ma chere. Your brother has
been arrested."

"My brother? Sergai? What for?"

"He has been preaching socialism to the peasants." (Kollomietzev gave
a faint little scream.) "Yes! preaching revolutionary ideas, making
propaganda! They seized him--and gave him up. He is now under arrest in
the town."

"Madman! But who told you?"

"This Mr... Mr... what's his name? Mr. Konopatin brought the news."

Valentina Mihailovna glanced at Paklin; the latter bowed dejectedly.
("What a glorious woman!" he thought. Even in such difficult moments...
alas! how susceptible Paklin was to feminine beauty!)

"And you want to go to town at this hour?"

"I think the governor will still be up."

"I always said it would end like this," Kollomietzev put in. "It
couldn't have been otherwise! But what dears our peasants are really!
Pardon, madame, c'est votre frere! Mais la verite avant tout!"

"Do you really intend going to town, Boris?" Valentina Mihailovna asked.

"I feel absolutely certain," Kollomietzev continued, "that that tutor,
Mr. Nejdanov, is mixed up in this. J'en mettrais ma main au feu. It's
all one gang! Haven't they seized him? Don't you know?"

Sipiagin waved his wrist again.

"I don't know--and don't want to know! By the way," he added, turning to
his wife, "il parait qu'il sont maries."

"Who said so? That same gentleman?" Valentina Mihailovna looked at
Paklin again, this time with half-closed eyes.

"Yes."

"In that case," Kollomietzev put in, "he must know where they are. Do
you know where they are? Do you know? Eh? Do you know?"

Kollomietzev took to walking up and down in front of Paklin as if to
cut off his way, although the latter had not betrayed the slightest
inclination of wanting to run away. "Why don't you speak? Answer me! Do
you know, eh? Do you know?"

"Even if I knew," Paklin began, annoyed; his wrath had risen up in him
at last and his eyes flashed fire: "even if I knew I would not tell
you."

"Oh... oh..." Kollomietzev muttered. "Do you hear? Do you hear? This one
too--this one too is of their gang!"

"The carriage is ready!" a footman announced loudly. Sipiagin with a
quick graceful movement seized his hat, but Valentina Mihailovna was so
insistent in her persuasions for him to put off the journey until the
morning and brought so many convincing arguments to bear--such as: that
it was pitch dark outside, that everybody in town would be asleep