A. N.
P.S.—Our people are asleep.... But I have a feeling that if anything does wake them, it will not be what we think....
After writing the last line, Nejdanov flung down the pen. “Well, now you must try and sleep and forget all this nonsense, scribbler!” he exclaimed, and lay down on the bed. But it was long before he fell asleep.
The next morning Mariana woke him passing through his room on her way to Tatiana. He had scarcely dressed when she came back. She seemed excited, her face expressing delight and anxiety at the same time.
“Do you know, Aliosha, they say that in the province of T., quite near here, it has already begun!”
“What? What has begun? Who said so?”
“Pavel. They say the peasants are rising, refusing to pay taxes, collecting in mobs.”
“Have you heard that yourself?”
“Tatiana told me. But here is Pavel himself. You had better ask him.”
Pavel came in and confirmed what Mariana had said.