was paler than usual and had dark lines under
his eyes, which were very bright. Kranitski rushed from the
cathedra, and, seizing the young man by both hands, looked into
his face with tenderness:

"At last, at last! I have not seen you for almost a fortnight. I
have not left the house. I had a little hope that you would visit
me."

"All right, all right!" answered Maryan, and touching the hand of
the baron, he sat down on the box on which was the anointing of
Louis XI, he rested his shoulders on the bare foot of Alberich
and became motionless.

Maryan continued to be so motionless that not only the limbs of
his body, but the features of his face seemed benumbed. Had it
not been for his eyes, which were gleaming brightly, he might
have been mistaken at a distance for a stuffed and elegantly
dressed manikin. Baron Emil and Kranitski knew what this meant.
According to Maryan that was a chill into which he fell always
after disappointment or disenchantment. He was possessed at such
times by a lack of will, which made all movements, even those
which were physical, unendurable and difficult. At the same time
he had such a contempt for all things on earth that it did not
seem worth the while to him to move hand or lips for any cause.
Some French writer has called such a condition of desiccation of
the heart's interior. Maryan found that definition quite
appropriate. When he sat motionless, deaf and dumb, or walked
like an automaton moved by springs, he felt exactly as if the
interior of his heart were drying up.

The baron, too, passed through similar states with some
differences, however, for feeling contempt instead of lack of
will, he felt a "red anger," or what the French call colere
rouge. He was carried away then by the wish to shut his fist,
heat and break, in fact he did beat the servants sometimes, and
break costly articles. He considered the desiccation of his
friend's heart in its interior portions with respect, even with
sympathy. He, with hands thrust into his yellowish flannel
pockets, walked up and down in the chamber and hissed through his
teeth:

"We are all stunted. We are breaking down! bah! it is time. The
world is old. Children of an aged father born with internal
cancer."

Kranitski, hearing this, thought: "Why should a man break down
and get a cancer when he is young and rich?" But he did not
oppose. He pitied Maryan. He looked at him with an expression of
eyes similar to that with which lov