need? One who'd bring you sandwiches in your lab and wouldn't be
demanding on your attention.'
166
'I don't know,' Valya muttered. 'I'll marry eventually I suppose.
When I'm through with my thesis I'll be quite free. I'll soon be going
back to Moscow, you know. What about you?'
'What about me?'
'Why don't you marry?'
After a pause, I said: 'Oh, it's different with me. I lead a different life—
here today and at the other end of the earth tomorrow. I can't marry.'
'No, you ought to marry too,' Valya retorted , then, struck by a
sudden thought, he added: 'I say, do you remember coming to see me at
the Zoo with Katya, who brought a friend along? What was her name? A
tall girl with plaits.'
His face assumed such a gentle, childish expression that I could not
help laughing.
'Yes, of course. Kiren! Good-looking, isn't she?'
'Very,' said Valya. 'Very.'
He wanted to give me his bed, but I preferred a shakedown on the
floor. There were plenty of cots in the house, but I had always liked
sleeping on the floor.
I did not feel like sleeping that night. We talked about everything
under the sun, then harked back to the subject of Korablev.
'You know.' Valya said, 'I may be wrong, of course, but I have an idea
that he was a little in love with Maria Vasilievna. Don't you think so?'
'Maybe.'
'Because a very odd thing happened. One day, when I called to see
him, I saw her portrait on his desk. I asked him something, because I
happened to be going to Tatarinovs the next day, and he suddenly
started talking about her. Then he fell silent, and he had such a look on
his face ... I decided there was something wrong there.'
'You don't say so?' I said with annoyance. 'What the hell—you must
be living up in the clouds. A little in love! Why, he couldn't live without
her! And all this was going on right under your nose. But you were busy
with your snakes then!'
'No, really? Poor devil!'
'Poor devil's right.'
After a pause I asked:
'Were you often at the Tatarinovs?'
'Not very often. About three times.'
'How are they getting on?'
Valya rose on his elbow. He seemed to be trying to see my face in the
dark, though I had spoken quite calmly.
'They're all right. Nikolai Antonich is a professor now.'
'Is that so! What does he read?'
'Pedology,' Valya said. 'And a highly respected professor, I'd have
you know. As a matter of fact...'
'As a matter of fact what?'
'I think you were mistaken about him.'
'Do you?'
'Yes,' Valya said with conviction. 'You were wrong about him. Just
look how he treats his pupils, for instance. Why, he's ready to go
through fire and water for them. Romashov told me that last year—'
'Romashov? Where does he come in?'
'What d'you mean? It was he who took me to the Tatarinovs.'
167
'How does he come to be there?'
'He's Nikolai Antonich's assistant. He's there every day. He's an
intimate friend of the family.'
'Wait a minute, what are you talking about? I don't understand. You
mean Romashka?'
'Yes, of course,' said Valya. 'Only nobody calls him that now. By the
way, I believe he's going to marry Katya.'
I felt a sudden stab through the heart and sat up. Valya sat up, too,
and stared at me blankly.
'What's the matter?' he asked. 'Oh, of course. Damn it. I'd quite
forgotten!'
He muttered something, then looked around with an air of
bewilderment and got out of his bed.
'Well, not exactly going to marry—'
'Finish what you were going to say,' I said quite calmly.
'What d'you mean 'finish'?' Valya stammered. 'I didn't say anything.
It was just my idea, it doesn't mean anything. I get funny ideas
sometimes, you know.'
'Valya!'
'I don't know anything!' Valya said in desperation. 'It's only an idea.
I get some crazy ideas sometimes. You don't have to believe me!'
'You have an idea that Romashov is going to marry Katya?'
'Hell, no! I tell you, no! Nothing of the sort! He started to dress up,
that's all.'
'Valya!'
'I swear I don't know anything more.'
'Has he talked to you about it?'
'Well, yes. He told me he'd been saving up money since he was
thirteen and had now taken and spent it all in six months. Has that got
anything to do with it, you think?'
I was no longer listening to him. I lay on the floor, staring out at the
sky, and it seemed to me that I was lying in some deep abyss and the
whole world was humming and talking above me, while I was lying all
alone with nobody to say a word to. The sky was still dark and the stars
still visible, but already a faint, distant light was hovering over the earth,
and I was thinking-here we had spent the whole night talking and this is
where it has led us!
'Good night!'
'Good night!' I answered mechanically.
