re could be in this dull,
useless little town.

"Strange," he repeated in hesitation. "Come along, though; I don't
care."

Atchmianov walked rapidly on ahead and Laevsky followed him. They
walked down a street, then turned into an alley.

"What a bore this is!" said Laevsky.

"One minute, one minute . . . it's near."

Near the old rampart they went down a narrow alley between two empty
enclosures, then they came into a sort of large yard and went towards
a small house.

"That's Muridov's, isn't it?" asked Laevsky.

"Yes."

"But why we've come by the back yards I don't understand. We might
have come by the street; it's nearer. . . ."

"Never mind, never mind. . . ."

It struck Laevsky as strange, too, that Atchmianov led him to a
back entrance, and motioned to him as though bidding him go quietly
and hold his tongue.

"This way, this way . . ." said Atchmianov, cautiously opening the
door and going into the passage on tiptoe. "Quietly, quietly, I beg
you . . . they may hear."

He listened, drew a deep breath and said in a whisper:

"Open that door, and go in . . . don't be afraid."

Laevsky, puzzled, opened the door and went into a room with a low
ceiling and curtained windows.

There was a candle on the table.

"What do you want?" asked some one in the next room. "Is it you,
Muridov?"

Laevsky turned into that room and saw Kirilin, and beside him
Nadyezhda Fyodorovna.

He didn't hear what was said to him; he staggered back, and did not
know how he found himself in the street. His hatred for Von Koren
and his uneasiness--all had vanished from his soul. As he went
home he waved his right arm awkwardly and looked carefully at the
ground under his feet, trying to step where it was smooth. At home
in his study he walked backwards and forwards, rubbing his hands,
and awkwardly shrugging his shoulders and neck, as though his jacket
and shirt were too tight; then he lighted a candle and sat down to
the table. . . .

XVI

"The 'humane studies' of which you speak will only satisfy human
thought when, as they advance, they meet the exact sciences and
progress side by side with them. Whether they will meet under a new
microscope, or in the monologues of a new Hamlet, or in a new
religion, I do not know, but I expect the earth will be covered
with a crust of ice before it comes to pass. Of all humane learning
the most durable and living is, of course, the teaching of Christ;
but look how differently ev