ch that had been blown down in a storm.

"Now begin!" she said, and added directly afterwards, "I am so glad to
see you again! I thought these two days would never come to an end! Do
you know, I'm convinced that Valentina Mihailovna listened to us."

"She wrote to Markelov about it," Nejdanov remarked.

"Did she?"

Mariana was silent for a while. She blushed all over, not from shame,
but from another, deeper feeling.

"She is a wicked, spiteful woman!" she said slowly and quietly. "She
had no right to do such a thing! But it doesn't matter. Now tell me your
news."

Nejdanov began talking and Mariana listened to him with a sort of stony
attention, only stopping him when she thought he was hurrying over
things, not giving her sufficient details. However, not all the details
of his visit were of equal interest to her; she laughed over Fomishka
and Fimishka, but they did not interest her. Their life was too remote
from hers.

"It's just like hearing about Nebuchadnezzar," she remarked.

But she was very keen to know what Markelov had said, what Golushkin had
thought (though she soon realised what sort of a bird he was), and above
all wanted to know Solomin's opinion and what sort of a man he was.
These were the things that interested her. "But when? when?" was a
question constantly in her mind and on her lips the whole time Nejdanov
was talking, while he, on the other hand, seemed to try and avoid
everything that might give a definite answer to that question. He began
to notice himself that he laid special stress on those details that were
of least interest to Mariana. He pulled himself up, but returned to them
again involuntarily. Humorous descriptions made her impatient, a
sceptic or dejected tone hurt her. It was necessary to keep strictly
to everything concerning the "cause," and however much he said on the
subject did not seem to weary her. It brought back to Nejdanov's mind
how once, before he had entered the university, when he was staying with
some friends of his in the country one summer, he had undertaken to
tell the children some stories; they had also paid no attention to
descriptions, personal expressions, personal sensations, they had also
demanded nothing but facts and figures. Mariana was not a child, but she
was like a child in the directness and simplicity of her feelings.

Nejdanov was sincerely enthusiastic in his praise of Markelov, and
expressed himself with particular warmth about Solomin. W