nt, dry feeling came into
her mouth. Pavel took her hand and stroked it.

"I must do it! Please understand me! It is my happiness!"

"I'm not saying anything," she answered, slowly raising her head; but
when her eyes met the resolute gleam in his, she again lowered it. He
released her hand, and with a sigh said reproachfully:

"You oughtn't to be grieved. You ought to feel rejoiced. When are we
going to have mothers who will rejoice in sending their children even
to death?"

"Hopp! Hopp!" mumbled the Little Russian. "How you gallop away!"

"Why; do I say anything to you?" the mother repeated. "I don't
interfere with you. And if I'm sorry for you--well, that's a mother's
way."

Pavel drew away from her, and she heard his sharp, harsh words:

"There is a love that interferes with a man's very life."

She began to tremble, and fearing that he might deal another blow at
her heart by saying something stern, she rejoined quickly:

"Don't, Pasha! Why should you? I understand. You can't act
otherwise, you must do it for your comrades."

"No!" he replied. "I am doing it for myself. For their sake I can go
without carrying the banner, but I'm going to do it!"

Andrey stationed himself in the doorway. It was too low for him, and
he had to bend his knees oddly. He stood there as in a frame, one
shoulder leaning against the jamb, his head and other shoulder thrust
forward.

"I wish you would stop palavering, my dear sir," he said with a frown,
fixing his protuberant eyes on Pavel's face. He looked like a lizard
in the crevice of a stone wall.

The mother was overcome with a desire to weep, but she did not want her
son to see her tears, and suddenly mumbled: "Oh, dear!--I forgot--"
and walked out to the porch. There, her head in a corner, she wept
noiselessly; and her copious tears weakened her, as though blood oozed
from her heart along with them.

Through the door standing ajar the hollow sound of disputing voices
reached her ear.

"Well, do you admire yourself for having tortured her?"

"You have no right to speak like that!" shouted Pavel.

"A fine comrade I'd be to you if I kept quiet when I see you making a
fool of yourself. Why did you say all that to your mother?"

"A man must always speak firmly and without equivocation. He must be
clear and definite when he says 'Yes.' He must be clear and definite
when he says 'No.'"

"To her--to her must you speak that way?"

"To everybody!