She shut his mouth.... ‘Sh—or I shall be angry, and never come to see you again. Why isn’t it all decided, all settled between us? Am I not your wife? Can a wife be parted from her husband?’
‘Wives don’t go into war,’ he said with a half-mournful smile.
‘Oh yes, when they can’t stay behind, and I cannot stay here?’
‘Elena, my angel!.. but think, I have, perhaps, to leave Moscow in a fortnight. I can’t think of university lectures, or finishing my work.’
‘What!’ interrupted Elena, ‘you have to go soon? If you like, I will stop at once this minute with you for ever, and not go home, shall I? Shall we go at once?’
Insarov clasped her in his arms with redoubled warmth. ‘May God so reward me then,’ he cried, ‘if I am doing wrong! From to-day, we are one for ever!’
‘Am I to stay?’ asked Elena.
‘No, my pure girl; no, my treasure. You shall go back home to-day, only keep yourself in readiness. This is a matter we can’t manage straight off; we must plan it out well. We want money, a passport——’
‘I have money,’ put in Elena. ‘Eighty roubles.’
‘Well, that’s not much,’ observed Insarov; ‘but everything’s a help.’