t necessary? You can see that, can't you?

KONDRATY _(heaving a sigh)_

Ye-es, hm! Why, Mr. Tropinin--why, my dear fellow--don't I know, don't
I understand it all? It's a rotten, cursed life! Ah, Mr. Savva, Mr.
Savva--look here. If I were to tell anyone that I am a good man,
they'd laugh and say: "What are you lying for, you drunkard?" Kondraty
a good man! It sounds like a joke even to myself. And yet I swear to
you, by God, I am a good man! I don't know how it happened the way it
did, why I am what I am now. I lived and lived, and suddenly! How it
came about, what the reason of it is, I don't know.

SAVVA

And you are still afraid?

KONDRATY

What am I now? I am neither a candle for God nor a poker for the
devil. Sometimes when I think matters over--ah, Mr. Savva, do
you think I have no conscience? Don't I understand? I understand
everything but--I am not really afraid of the devil either. I am just
playing the fool. The devil--nonsense! If you were in the place of
us in there, you would understand. Not long ago, when I was drunk, I
cried: "Get out, devil--out of my way--am a desperate man!" I don't
care for anything. I don't care if I die. I am ready. You have worked
at me, Mr. Savva, until I have grown quite soft. _(Wipes his eyes with
his sleeves)_

SAVVA

Why should you die? I don't want to die either. We are going to live
for some time to come, we are. How old are you?

KONDRATY

Forty-two.

SAVVA

Just the right age.

KONDRATY

I am sorry for the ikon. They say it appeared miraculously in the
river, and that's how it came to be here.

SAVVA

Nonsense. Don't waste your feelings. It's supposed to be a
wonder-working ikon and hasn't one miracle to its credit. Why, it
makes one feel like a fool just to say it.

KONDRATY

They say it has been replaced by the devil, so that it isn't the real
one.

SAVVA

So much the better. And yet you crack your heads in front of it and
fool the people about it. There is no use wasting words, my friend.
It's agreed then.

KONDRATY

You have to go now. The gate will soon be closed. And all of a
sudden--

SAVVA

What "all of a sudden"?

KONDRATY

And all of a sudden I'll be going to the ikon, and it will strike me
down with lightning and thunder. Won't it?

SAVVA _(laughing)_

Don't be afraid. It won't strike you. That's what everybody thinks.
They are all afraid they'll be struck by lightning and thunder. But it
won't happen. Believe me, a