se me," he answered, also quietly. At the door was heard
a rustle and Liudmila's voice.

"They sit in the darkness and whisper. Where is the knob?"

The room trembled and suddenly became filled with a white, unfriendly
light. In the middle of the room stood Liudmila, all black, tall,
straight, and serious. Yegor transferred his glance to her, and making
a great effort to move his body, raised his hand to his breast.

"What's the matter?" exclaimed Liudmila, running up to him. He looked
at the mother with fixed eyes, and now they seemed large and strangely
bright.

"Wait!" he whispered.

Opening his mouth wide, he raised his head and stretched his hand
forward. The mother carefully held it up and caught her breath as she
looked into his face. With a convulsive and powerful movement of his
neck he flung his head back, and said aloud:

"Give me air!"

A quiver ran through his body; his head dropped limply on his shoulder,
and in his wide open eyes the cold light of the lamp burning over the
bed was reflected dully.

"My darling!" whispered the mother, firmly pressing his hand, which
suddenly grew heavy.

Liudmila slowly walked away from the bed, stopped at the window and
stared into space.

"He's dead!" she said in an unusually loud voice unfamiliar to Vlasova.
She bent down, put her elbows on the window sill, and repeated in dry,
startled tones: "He's dead! He died calmly, like a man, without
complaint." And suddenly, as if struck a blow on the head, she dropped
faintly on her knees, covered her face, and gave vent to dull, stifled
groans.

CHAPTER VII

The mother folded Yegor's hands over his breast and adjusted his head,
which was strangely warm, on the pillow. Then silently wiping her
eyes, she went to Liudmila, bent over her, and quietly stroked her
thick hair. The woman slowly turned around to her, her dull eyes
widened in a sickly way. She rose to her feet, and with trembling lips
whispered:

"I've known him for a long time. We were in exile together. We went
there together on foot, we sat in prison together; at times it was
intolerable, disgusting; many fell in spirit."

Her dry, loud groans stuck in her throat. She overcame them with an
effort, and bringing her face nearer to the mother's she continued in a
quick whisper, moaning without tears:

"Yet he was unconquerably jolly. He joked and laughed, and covered up
his suffering in a manly way, always striving to encoura