task for you, as Lukerya won't be over quick of understanding, and she'll be shy of you, and will fancy too that what you're trying to teach her won't be of the least use to her; and in a fortnight or three weeks you'll be struggling with some other Lukerya, and meanwhile you'll be washing a child or teaching him his A B C, or giving medicine to a sick man . . . that will be your beginning.'
'But the sisters of mercy do all that, you know, Vassily Fedotitch! What need, then . . . of all this?' Marianna pointed to herself and round about her with a vague gesture. 'I dreamt of something else.'
'You wanted to sacrifice yourself?'
Marianna's eyes glistened.
'Yes . . . yes . . . yes!'
'And Nezhdanov?'
Marianna shrugged her shoulders.
'What of Nezhdanov! We will go forward together . . . or I will go alone.'
Solomin looked intently at Marianna.
'Do you know what, Marianna . . . you will excuse the unpleasantness of the expression . . . but to my idea, combing the scurfy head of a dirty urchin is a sacrifice, and a great sacrifice, of which not many people are capable.'
'But I would not refuse to do that, Vassily Fedotitch.'
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