aising her head she saw in the vehicle a young man
with light mustache and a pale, worn face. He, too, regarded her. He
sat slantwise. It must have been due to his position that his right
shoulder was higher than his left.

At home Nikolay met her joyously.

"Alive? How did it go?"

"It seems everything's been successful!"

And slowly trying to reinstate all the details in her memory, she began
to tell of the escape. Nikolay, too, was amazed at the success.

"You see, we're lucky!" said Nikolay, rubbing his hands. "But how
frightened I was on your account only God knows. You know what,
Nilovna, take my friendly advice: don't be afraid of the trial. The
sooner it's over and done with the sooner Pavel will be free. Believe
me. I've already written to my sister to try to think what can be done
for Pavel. Maybe he'll even escape on the road. And the trial is
approximately like this." He began to describe to her the session of
the court. She listened, and understood that he was afraid of
something--that he wanted to inspirit her.

"Maybe you think I'll say something to the judges?" she suddenly
inquired. "That I'll beg them for something?"

He jumped up, waved his hands at her, and said in an offended tone:

"What are you talking about? You're insulting me!"

"Excuse me, please; excuse me! I really AM afraid--of what I don't
know."

She was silent, letting her eyes wander about the room.

"Sometimes it seems to me that they'll insult Pasha--scoff at him. 'Ah,
you peasant!' they'll say. 'You son of a peasant! What's this mess
you've cooked up?' And Pasha, proud as he is, he'll answer them
so----! Or Andrey will laugh at them--and all the comrades there are
hot-headed and honest. So I can't help thinking that something will
suddenly happen. One of them will lose his patience, the others will
support him, and the sentence will be so severe--you'll never see them
again."

Nikolay was silent, pulling his beard glumly as the mother continued:

"It's impossible to drive this thought from my head. The trial is
terrible to me. When they'll begin to take everything apart and weigh
it--it's awful! It's not the sentence that's terrible, but the
trial--I can't express it." She felt that Nikolay didn't understand
her fear; and his inability to comprehend kept her from further
analysis of her timidities, which, however, only increased and
broadened during the three following days. Finally, on the