wretched for me here since I have come to know you.'
Marianna smiled thoughtfully.
'Thanks, Alexey Dmitritch; but tell me, can you intend to stay here after all this hideous business?'
'I don't suppose they'll let me stay here, they'll dismiss me!'
'Wouldn't you dismiss yourself?'
'Of my own accord? . . . No.'
'Why?'
'You want to know the truth? because you are here.'
Marianna bent her head and moved a little further away into the room.
'And besides,' Nezhdanov went on, 'I am bound to stay here. You know nothing but I want, I feel I ought, to tell you everything.'
He stepped up to Marianna and seized her by the hand. She did not take it away, but only looked into his face. 'Listen!' he cried on a sudden powerful impulse, 'listen to me!' And at once, without sitting down, though there were two or three chairs in the room, still standing in front of Marianna and keeping hold of her hand, with impulsive heat, with an eloquence unexpected by himself, Nezhdanov told her of his plans, his intentions, the reasons that had made him accept Sipyagin's offer, of all his
168
