enty new ones. Or, perhaps, it's not
too late now? Why, she's silly, undeveloped, and, probably, a hysteric,
like the rest of them. She's an animal, fit only for stuffing herself
and for the bed. Oh! The devil!" Lichonin forcefully squeezed his
cheeks and his forehead between his hands and shut his eyes. "And if I
had but held out against the common, coarse, physical temptation!
There, you see for yourself, this has happened twice already; and then
it'll go on and on ..."

But side by side with these ran other thoughts, opposed to them:

"But then, I'm a man. I am master of my word. For that which urged me
on to this deed was splendid, noble, lofty. I remember very well that
rapture which seized me when my thought transpired into action! That
was a pure, tremendous feeling. Or was it simply an extravagance of the
mind, whipped up by alcohol; the consequence of a sleepless night,
smoking, and long, abstract conversations?"

And immediately Liubka would appear before him, appear at a distance,
as though out of the misty depths of time; awkward, timid, with her
homely and endearing face, which had at once come to seem of infinitely
close kinship; long, long familiar, and at the same time
unpleasant--unjustly, without cause.

"Can it be that I'm a coward and a rag?" cried Lichonin inwardly and
wrung his hands. "What am I afraid of, before whom am I embarrassed?
Have I not always prided myself upon being sole master of my life?
Let's suppose, even, that the phantasy, the extravagance, of making a
psychological experiment upon a human soul--a rare experiment,
unsuccessful in ninety-nine percent--has entered my head. Is it
possible that I must render anybody an account in this, or fear
anybody's opinion? Lichonin! Look down upon mankind from above!"

Jennie walked into the room, dishevelled, sleepy, in a night jacket on
top of a white underskirt.

"A-a!" she yawned, extending her hand to Lichonin. "How d'you do, my
dear student! How does your Liubochka feel herself in the new place?
Call me in as a guest some time. Or are you spending your honeymoon on
the quiet? Without any outside witnesses?"

"Drop the silly stuff, Jennechka. I came about the passport."

"So-o. About the passport," Jennka went into thought. "That is, there's
no passport here, but you must take a blank from the housekeeper. You
understand, our usual prostitute's blank; and then they'll exchange it
for you for a real book at the station house. Only y