went over to Nekhludoff.

"Can you hear me now?" asked Simonson.

"Certainly," said Nekhludoff, also rising to follow him.

Maslova saw Nekhludoff rising, and their eyes meeting, she turned red
in the face and doubtfully, as it seemed, shook her head.

"My business with you is the following," began Simonson, when they
reached the corridor. "Knowing your relations toward Catherine
Michaelovna," and he looked straight into Nekhludoff's face, "I
consider it my duty----" But at the very door two voices were shouting
at the same time.

"I tell you, heathen, they are not mine," shouted one voice.

"Choke yourself, you devil!" the other said, hoarsely.

At that moment Maria Pablovna entered the corridor.

"You cannot talk here," she said. "Walk in here; only Verotchka is
there." And she opened the door of a tiny cell, evidently intended for
solitary confinement, and now at the disposal of the political
prisoners. On one of the bunks lay Vera Efremovna, with her head
covered.

"She is ill and asleep; she cannot hear you, and I will go," said
Maria Pablovna.

"On the contrary, stay here," said Simonson. "I keep nothing secret,
especially from you."

"Very well," said Maria Pablovna, and childishly moving her whole body
from side to side, and thus getting into a snug corner of the bunks,
she prepared to listen, at the same time looking somewhere in the
distance with her beautiful, sheepish eyes.

"Well, then, knowing your relations toward Catherine Michaelovna, I
consider it my duty to let you know my relations to her."

"Well, go on," said Nekhludoff, involuntarily admiring Simonson's
simplicity and straightforwardness.

"I wished to tell you that I would like to marry Catherine
Michaelovna----"

"Remarkable!" exclaimed Maria Pablovna, fixing her gaze on Simonson.

"And I have decided to ask her to be my wife," continued Simonson.

"What, then, can I do? It depends on her," said Nekhludoff.

"Yes; but she would not decide the matter without you."

"Why?"

"Because, while the question of your relations remains undecided, she
cannot choose."

"On my part the question is definitely decided. I only wished to do
that which I considered it my duty to do, and also to relieve her
condition, but in no case did I intend to influence her choice."

"Yes; but she does not wish your sacrifice."

"There is no sacrifice."

"And I also know that her decision is irrevocable."

"Why, then, talk to me?" said Nekhlu