are too sparing in the expenditure of our
feelings. We live a great deal in our thoughts, and that spoils us to
a certain extent. We estimate, but we don't feel."

"Did anything good happen to you?" asked Sofya with a smile.

"Yes," said Sasha, nodding her head. "I had a whole night's talk with
Vyesovshchikov. I didn't use to like him. He seemed rude and dull.
Undoubtedly that's what he was. A dark, immovable irritation at
everybody lived in him. He always used to place himself, as it were,
like a dead weight in the center of things, and wrathfully say, 'I, I,
I.' There was something bourgeois in this, low, and exasperating."
She smiled, and again took in everybody with her burning look.

"Now he says: 'Comrades'--and you ought to hear how he says it, with
what a stirring, tender love. He has grown marvelously simple and
open-hearted, and possessed with a desire to work. He has found
himself, he has measured his power, and knows what he is not. But the
main thing is, a true comradely feeling has been born in him, a broad,
loving comradeship, which smiles in the face of every difficulty in
life."

Vlasova listened to Sasha attentively. She was glad to see this girl,
always so stern, now softened, cheerful, and happy. Yet from some
deeps of her soul arose the jealous thought: "And how about Pasha?"

"He's entirely absorbed in thoughts of the comrades," continued Sasha.
"And do you know of what he assures me? Of the necessity of arranging
an escape for them. He says it's a very simple, easy matter."

Sofya raised her head, and said animatedly:

"And what do YOU think, Sasha? Is it feasible?"

The mother trembled as she set a cup of tea on the table. Sasha knit
her brows, her animation gone from her. After a moment's silence, she
said in a serious voice, but smiling in joyous confusion:

"HE'S convinced. If everything is really as he says, we ought to try.
It's our duty." She blushed, dropped into a chair, and lapsed into
silence.

"My dear, dear girl!" the mother thought, smiling. Sofya also smiled,
and Nikolay, looking tenderly into Sasha's face, laughed quietly. The
girl raised her head with a stern glance for all. Then she paled, and
her eyes flashed, and she said dryly, the offense she felt evident in
her voice:

"You're laughing. I understand you. You consider me personally
interested in the case, don't you?"

"Why, Sasha?" asked Sofya, rising and going over to her.

Agitated