Her conception of work was now indissolubly connected with the work that her son, Andrey, and their comrades were doing. She moved a little toward Nikolay, and looking in his eyes, asked:
"Yes? You say work will be found for me?"
"My household is a small one, I am a bachelor——"
"I'm not talking about that, not about housework," she said quietly. "I mean world work."
And she heaved a melancholy sigh, stung and repelled by his failure to understand her. He rose, and bending toward her, with a smile in his nearsighted eyes, he said thoughtfully, "You'll find a place for yourself in the work world, too, if you want it."
Her mind quickly formulated the simple and clear thought: "Once I was able to help Pavel; perhaps I will succeed again. The greater the number of those who work for his cause, the clearer will his truth come out before the people."
But these thoughts did not fully express the whole force and complexity of her desire.
"What could I do?" she asked quietly.
He thought a while, and then began to explain the technical details of the revolutionary work. Among other things, he said:
"If, when you go to see Pavel in prison, you tried to find out from him the address of the peasant who asked for a newspaper——"