Many
things have been brought, they say," said the consumptive.

"Finashka!" shouted the watch-woman. "Where are you, you little
rogue?" She drew out one of the knitting needles, stuck it into the
ball of thread and stocking, and went out into the corridor.

At this moment the inmates of the cell, with bare feet in their prison
shoes, entered, each bearing a loaf of twisted bread, some even two.
Theodosia immediately approached Maslova.

"Why, anything wrong?" she asked, lovingly, looking with her bright,
blue eyes at Maslova. "And here is something for our tea," and she
placed the leaves on the shelf.

"Well, has he changed his mind about marrying you?" asked Korableva.

"No, he has not, but I do not wish to," answered Maslova, "and I told
him so."

"What a fool!" said Korableva, in her basso voice.

"What is the good of marrying if they cannot live together?" asked
Theodosia.

"Is not your husband going with you?" answered the watch-woman.

"We are legally married," said Theodosia. "But why should he marry her
legally if he cannot live with her?"

"What a fool! Why, if he marries her he will make her rich!"

"He said: 'Wherever you may be, I will be with you,'" said Maslova.

"He may go if he likes; he needn't if he don't. I will not ask him. He
is now going to St. Petersburg to try to get me out. All the ministers
there are his relatives," she continued, "but I don't care for them."

"Sure enough," Korableva suddenly assented, reaching down into her
bag, and evidently thinking of something else. "What do you say--shall
we have some wine?"

"Not I," answered Maslova. "Drink yourselves."

PART SECOND.

CHAPTER I.

The Senate could hear the case in two weeks, and by that time
Nekhludoff intended to be in St. Petersburg, and, in case of an
adverse decision, to petition the Emperor, as the lawyer had advised.
In case the appeal failed, for which, his lawyer had told him, he must
be prepared, as the grounds of appeal were very weak, the party of
convicts to which Maslova belonged would be transported in May. It was
therefore necessary, in order to be prepared to follow Maslova to
Siberia, upon which Nekhludoff was firmly resolved, to go to the
villages and arrange his affairs there.

First of all, he went to the Kusminskoie estate, the nearest, largest
black-earth estate, which brought the greatest income. He had lived on
the estate in his childhood and youth, and had also twice visited