“‘Hush!’ I said sternly. ‘You deliberately torture yourself and me.’ He glanced up sharply.
“‘You! What do you mean?’
“‘I must not listen to such things,’ I said. ‘They are bad for you and for me.’
“‘How can they be bad for you—a monk?’
“‘Such talk is evil—evil for everyone.’
“‘I’ll be silent then. I’ll go into the silence. I’ll go soon.’
“I understood that he thought of putting an end to himself.
“‘There are few men,’ I said, speaking with deliberation, with effort, ‘who do not feel at some period of life that all is over for them, that there is nothing to hope for, that happiness is a dream which will visit them no more.’
“‘Have you ever felt like that? You speak of it calmly, but have you ever experienced it?’
“I hesitated. Then I said: