she said. When she went to
bed, she was still talking about going to Orel."

"Wait! What do you intend to do now, Parfen?"

"Well, I'm afraid of you. You shudder and tremble so. We'll pass the
night here together. There are no other beds besides that one; but I've
thought how we'll manage. I'll take the cushions off all the sofas, and
lay them down on the floor, up against the curtain here--for you and
me--so that we shall be together. For if they come in and look about
now, you know, they'll find her, and carry her away, and they'll be
asking me questions, and I shall say I did it, and then they'll take me
away, too, don't you see? So let her lie close to us--close to you and
me.

"Yes, yes," agreed the prince, warmly.

"So we will not say anything about it, or let them take her away?"

"Not for anything!" cried the other; "no, no, no!"

"So I had decided, my friend; not to give her up to anyone," continued
Rogojin. "We'll be very quiet. I have only been out of the house one
hour all day, all the rest of the time I have been with her. I dare say
the air is very bad here. It is so hot. Do you find it bad?"

"I don't know--perhaps--by morning it will be."

"I've covered her with oil-cloth--best American oilcloth, and put
the sheet over that, and four jars of disinfectant, on account of the
smell--as they did at Moscow--you remember? And she's lying so still;
you shall see, in the morning, when it's light. What! can't you get up?"
asked Rogojin, seeing the other was trembling so that he could not rise
from his seat.

"My legs won't move," said the prince; "it's fear, I know. When my fear
is over, I'll get up--"

"Wait a bit--I'll make the bed, and you can lie down. I'll lie down,
too, and we'll listen and watch, for I don't know yet what I shall do...
I tell you beforehand, so that you may be ready in case I--"

Muttering these disconnected words, Rogojin began to make up the beds.
It was clear that he had devised these beds long before; last night he
slept on the sofa. But there was no room for two on the sofa, and he
seemed anxious that he and the prince should be close to one another;
therefore, he now dragged cushions of all sizes and shapes from the
sofas, and made a sort of bed of them close by the curtain. He then
approached the prince, and gently helped him to rise, and led him
towards the bed. But the prince could now walk by himself, so that his
fear must have passed; for all that, however, he cont