"I know—it's impossible to help me.—How could I be helped? Who is there? We're alone in life, brother; our lot is settled—work, suffer, be silent—and then go out. Devil take you!"
He looked searchingly into his friend's face, and added in a decided, sinister tone:
"Look! You've crawled into a corner and sit quiet there. But I tell you, there's some one, who watches by night, thinking how to drag you out."
"No, no!" said Lunev smiling. "I'll make a fight for it. It's not so easy."
"Ah, don't be so sure! You think you'll run this business all your life, eh?"
"Why not?"
"They'll have you out, or else you yourself will give it up."
"But how? You'll have to wait to see that!" said Ilya, smiling.
But Gratschev maintained his statement. He looked hard at his friend, and said obstinately:
"I tell you, you'll leave it. You are not the kind to sit quiet and warm all your life, and it's certain either you'll take to drink or you'll go bankrupt. Something's bound to happen to you."