Yevsey trying not to show his embarrassment, said quietly and confidingly:
"I cannot decide to get married. It's very hard."
"Hard? Oh, you modest man! Marya, do you hear? He says it's hard to get married."
Masha smiled in answer to the cook's loud laugh, looking at Klimkov from the corner of her eyes.
"Maybe he has his own meaning of hard."
"Yes, I have my own meaning," said Yevsey, raising his head. "You see I am thinking of the fact that it is hard to find a person with whom you can live soul to soul, so that the one would not fear the other. It is hard to find a person whom you could believe."
Masha sat beside him. He glanced sidewise at her neck and breast, and sighed.
"Suppose I were to tell them where I work."
He started, frightened by the desire, and with a quick effort he suppressed it.
"If a man does not understand life," he continued, raising his voice, "it's better for him to remain alone."