“Yes ...”
“Why is it you are so talkative with me when you are usually so silent? You can’t imagine what pleasure it gives me.”
“Why?” Solomin took both her soft little hands in his big hard ones. “Why, did you ask? Well, I suppose it must be because I love you so much. Good-bye.”
He went out. Mariana stood pensive looking after him. In a little while she went to find Tatiana who had not yet brought the samovar. She had tea with her, washed some pots, plucked a chicken, and even combed out some boy’s tangled head of hair.
Before dinner she returned to her own rooms and soon afterwards Nejdanov arrived.
He came in tired and covered with dust and dropped on to the sofa. She immediately sat down beside him.
“Well, tell me what happened.”
“You remember the two lines,” he responded in a weary voice:
“It would have been so funny
Were it not so sad.”
“Do you remember?”