“And you yourself, do you love him?” he asked.
“Loving or not loving, what does it matter? I have given up all that. And then Vóldemar Símonson is quite an exceptional man.”
“Yes, of course,” Nekhlúdoff began. “He is a splendid man, and I think—”
But she again interrupted him, as if afraid that he might say too much or that she should not say all. “No, Dmítri Ivánovitch, you must forgive me if I am not doing what you wish,” and she looked at him with those unfathomable, squinting eyes of hers. “Yes, it evidently must be so. You must live, too.”
She said just what he had been telling himself a few moments before, but he no longer thought so now and felt very differently. He was not only ashamed, but felt sorry to lose all he was losing with her. “I did not expect this,” he said.
“Why should you live here and suffer? You have suffered enough.”
“I have not suffered. It was good for me, and I should like to go on serving you if I could.”
“We do not want anything,” she said, and looked at him.
“You have done so much for me as it is. If it had not been for you—” She wished to say more, but her voice trembled.
“You certainly have no reason to thank me,” Nekhlúdoff said.
“Where is the use of our reckoning? God will make up our accounts,” she said, and her black eyes began to glisten with the tears that filled them.
“What a good woman you are,” he said.
“I, good?” she said through her tears, and a pathetic smile lit up her face.
“Are you ready?” the Englishman asked.
“Directly,” replied Nekhlúdoff and asked her about Kryltzóff.
She got over her emotion and quietly told him all she knew. Kryltzóff was very weak and had been sent into the infirmary. Mary Pávlovna was very anxious, and had asked to be allowed to go to the infirmary as a nurse, but could not get the permission.
“Am I to go?” she asked, noticing that the Englishman was waiting.
“I will not say goodbye; I shall see you again,” said Nekhlúdoff, holding out his hand.
“Forgive me,” she said so low that he could hardly hear her. Their eyes met, and Nekhlúdoff knew by the strange look of her squinting eyes and the pathetic smile with which she said not “Goodbye” but “Forgive me,” that of the two reasons that might have led to her resolution, the second was the real one. She loved him, and thought that by uniting herself to him she would be spoiling his life. By going with Símonson she thought she would be setting Nekhlúdoff free, and felt glad that she had done what she meant to do, and yet she suffered at parting from him.
She pressed his hand, turned quickly and left the room.
Nekhlúdoff was ready to go, but saw that the Englishman was noting something down, and did not disturb him, but sat down on a wooden seat by the wall, and suddenly a feeling of terrible weariness came over him. It was not a sleepless night that had tired him, not the journey, not the excitement, but he felt terribly tired of living. He leaned against the back of the bench, shut his eyes and in a moment fell into a deep, heavy sleep.
“Well, would you like to look round the cells now?” the inspector asked.
Nekhlúdoff looked up and was surprised to find himself where he was. The Englishman had finished his notes and expressed a wish to see the cells.
Nekhlúdoff, tired and indifferent, followed him.
XXVI
When they had passed the anteroom and the sickening, stinking corridor, the Englishman and Nekhlúdoff, accompanied by the inspector, entered the first cell, where those sentenced to hard labour were confined. The beds took up the middle of the cell and the prisoners were all in bed. There were about seventy of them. When the visitors entered all the prisoners jumped up and stood beside the beds, excepting two, a young man who was in a state of high fever, and an old man who did nothing but groan.
The Englishman asked if the young man had long been ill. The inspector said that he was taken ill in the morning, but that the old man had long been suffering with pains in the stomach, but could not be removed, as the infirmary had been overfilled for a long time. The Englishman shook his head disapprovingly, said he would like to say a few words to these people, asking Nekhlúdoff to interpret. It turned out that besides studying the places of exile and the prisons of Siberia, the Englishman had another object in view, that of preaching salvation through faith and by the redemption.
“Tell them,” he said, “that Christ died for them. If they believe in this they shall be saved.” While he spoke, all the prisoners stood silent with their arms at their sides. “This book, tell them,” he continued, “says all about it. Can any of them read?”
There were more than twenty who could.
The Englishman took several bound Testaments out of a hang-bag, and many strong hands with their hard, black nails stretched out from beneath the coarse shirtsleeves towards him. He gave away two Testaments in this cell.
The same thing happened in the second cell. There was the same foul air, the same icon hanging between the windows, the same tub to the left of the door, and they were all lying side by side close to one another, and jumped up in the same manner and stood stretched full length with their arms by their sides, all but three, two of whom sat up and one remained lying, and did not even look at the newcomers; these three were also ill. The Englishman made the same speech and again gave away two books.
In the third room four were ill. When the Englishman asked why the sick were not put all together into one cell, the inspector said
