" the old man answered after some hesitation.

"That is to say that justice is dearer to you than your son; and to me
it's dearer than my father."

Sizov smiled, shaking his head; then he said with a sigh:

"Well, well, you're clever. Good-by. I wish you all good things, and
be better to people. Hey? Well, God be with you. Good-by, Nilovna.
When you see Pavel tell him I heard his speech. I couldn't understand
every bit of it; some things even seemed horrible; but tell him it's
true. They've found the truth, yes."

He raised his hat, and sedately turned around the corner of the street.

"He seems to be a good man," remarked Sasha, accompanying him with a
smile of her large eyes. "Such people can be useful to the cause. It
would be good to hide literature with them, for instance."

It seemed to the mother that to-day the girl's face was softer and
kinder than usual, and hearing her remarks about Sizov, she thought:

"Always about the cause. Even to-day. It's burned into her heart."

CHAPTER XVII

At home they sat on the sofa closely pressed together, and the mother
resting in the quiet again began to speak about Sasha's going to Pavel.
Thoughtfully raising her thick eyebrows, the girl looked into the
distance with her large, dreamy eyes. A contemplative expression
rested on her pale face.

"Then, when children will be born to you, I will come to you and dandle
them. We'll begin to live there no worse than here. Pasha will find
work. He has golden hands."

"Yes," answered Sasha thoughtfully. "That's good--" And suddenly
starting, as if throwing something away, she began to speak simply in a
modulated voice. "He won't commence to live there. He'll go away, of
course."

"And how will that be? Suppose, in case of children?"

"I don't know. We'll see when we are there. In such a case he
oughtn't to reckon with me, and I cannot constrain him. He's free at
any moment. I am his comrade--a wife, of course. But the conditions
of his work are such that for years and years I cannot regard our bond
as a usual one, like that of others. It will be hard, I know it, to
part with him; but, of course, I'll manage to. He knows that I'm not
capable of regarding a man as my possession. I'm not going to constrain
him, no."

The mother understood her, felt that she believed what she said, that
she was capable of carrying it out; and she was sorry for her. She
embraced her.

"My dear girl, it wi