inishness,
bestiality, and unworthy of a man who respects himself. Love!
Love--this is a full blending of minds, thoughts, souls, interests, and
not of the bodies alone. Love is a tremendous, great emotion, mighty as
the universe, and not the sprawling in bed. There's no such love
between us, Liubochka. If it'll come, it will be wonderful happiness
both for you and for me. But in the meantime--I'm your friend, your
faithful comrade, on the path of life. And that's enough, and that will
do ... And though I'm no stranger to human frailties, still, I count
myself an honest man."

Liubka seemed to wilt. "He thinks I want him to marry me. And I
absolutely don't need that," she thought sadly. "It's possible to live
just so. There are others, now, living on maintenance. And, they say,
far better than if they had twirled around an altar. What's so bad
about that? Peaceful, quiet, genteel ... I'd darn socks for him, wash
floors, cook ... the plainer dishes. Of course, he'll be in line to get
married to a rich girl some time. Well, now, to be sure, he wouldn't
throw me out in the street just so, mother-naked. Although he's a
little simpleton, and chatters a lot, still it's easy to tell he's a
decent man. He'll provide for me with something, somehow. And, perhaps,
he'll get to like me, will get used to me? I'm a simple girl, modest,
and would never consent to be false to him. For, they say, things do
fall out that way ... Only I mustn't let him see anything. But that
he'll come again into my bed, and will come this very night--that's as
sure as God is holy."

And Lichonin also fell into thought, grew quiet and sad; he was already
feeling the weight of a great deed which he had undertaken beyond his
powers. That was why he was even glad when some one knocked on the
door, and to his answer, "Come in!", two students entered: Soloviev,
and Nijeradze, who had slept that night at his place.

Soloviev, well-grown and already obese, with a broad, ruddy Volga face
and a light, scandent little beard, belonged to those kindly, merry and
simple fellows, of which there are sufficiently many in any university.
He divided his leisure--and of leisure he had twenty-four hours in the
day--between the beer-shop and rambling over the boulevards; among
billiards, whist, the theatre, reading of newspapers and novels, and
the spectacles of circus wrestling; while the short intervals in
between he used for eating, sleeping, the home repair of his ward