"The proverb says, 'Speech is silver, silence is golden.' Ekh, Brother, it is all sorrow, sorrow! He sang truly, 'Solitary I live in our village.' Human life is all loneliness."
He glanced round, lowered his voice, and continued:
"And I had found a friend after my own heart. There was a woman who happened to be alone, as good as a widow; her husband had been condemned to Siberia for coining money, and was in prison there. I became acquainted with her; she was penniless; it was that, you know, which led to our acquaintance. I looked at her and thought, 'What a nice little person!' Pretty, you know, young, simply wonderful. I saw her once or twice, and then I said to her: 'Your husband is a rogue. You are not living honestly yourself. Why do you want to go to Siberia after him?' But she would follow him into exile. She said to me: 'Whatever he is, I love him; he is good to me! It may be that it was for me he sinned. I have sinned with you. For' his sake,' she said, 'I had to have money; he is a gentleman and accustomed to live well. If I had been single,' she said, 'I should have lived honorably. You are a good man, too,' she said, 'and I like you very much, but don't talk to me about this again.' The devil! I gave her all I had—eighty rubles or thereabouts—and I said: 'You must pardon me, but I cannot see you any more. I cannot!' And I left her—and that's how—"
He was silent, and then he suddenly became drunk. He sank into a huddled-up heap and muttered:
"Six times I went to see her. You can't understand what it was like! I might have gone to her flat six more times, but I could not make up my mind to it. I could not! Now she has gone away."
He laid his hands on the table, and in a whisper, moving his fingers, said:
"God grant I never meet her again! God grant it! Then it would be going to the devil! Let us go home. Come!"
We went. He staggered along, muttering:
"That's how it is, Brother."
I was not surprised by the story he had told me; I had long ago guessed that something unusual had happened to him. But I was greatly depressed by what he had said about life, and more by what he had said about Osip.