"How pale you are. Are you ill?"
"I'm not feeling up to much."
"What have you got there?"
"What have——" Ilya began; then suddenly he shivered in fear lest he should babble away his secret, and said hurriedly, swinging his parcel to and fro:
"It's ribbon, that's all, out of my box."
"Coming to tea?" said Jakov.
"I? Oh, yes, in a minute."
He went quickly through the passage. He trod unsteadily, and his head was dizzy, as though he were drunk. As he mounted the attic stairs, he went carefully, in constant fear lest he should make a noise or meet some one. While he buried the money under the flooring, near the chimney, he thought all of a sudden that some one was hidden in the darkness in the corner, watching him; he felt a wish to throw a stone in that direction, but mastered his feelings, and came slowly downstairs again. Now he had no fears. It was as though he had left them with the money; but a fresh doubt waked in his heart: "Why did I kill him?"
Masha greeted him joyfully in the cellar, where she was busy at the stove with the samovar.
"Ah, how early you are to-day!"