"Why are you sitting here?" she asked.
"Didn't your mother chase me out?"
"That is nothing. Don't you know her temper? That is her way."
"She keeps nagging at me all the time, and calls me nothing but
Zhid, Zhid."
"And what of it? Aren't you a Jew? Should I feel insulted if some one were to call me Christian?!"
I had nothing to say. And it dawned upon me at that moment that I was really insulting myself by objecting to being called Zhid. True, Anna meant to jeer at me and insult me; but did it depend on her alone?
"And what are you going to do now?" asked Marusya.
"I want to run away."
"Without telling me?"
She peered into my face, and I felt as if two streams of warmth had emptied themselves into me. My eyes had become somewhat accustomed to the darkness, and I could discern every movement of her body. A delicate smile was playing around her mouth, and my feeling of despondency was giving way before it. I felt that after all I had a friend in the house, a good, loving, and beautiful friend.