Page:Andreyev - The Little Angel (Knopf, 1916).djvu/228

222 "How stupid. She did not allow me to say a word, but scolded me at once. The nasty girl could not understand that it was all a joke. I was doing it all for her own sake, while she—As if I needed her with her papers. Break your neck as much as you please. I suppose she is sitting now and telling all sorts of students, all sorts of long-haired students, how a spy was pursuing her. And they are sighing. The idiots! I am a university graduate myself, and am no worse than you are."

He felt warm after his brisk walk, and he unbuttoned his coat, but he recalled that he might catch a cold, so he buttoned his coat again, tugging with aversion at the loose, dangling button.

He stood in the same spot for a time, cast a helpless glance at the rows of lighted and dark windows and went on thinking:

"And the shaggy students are no doubt happy, and they believe her. Fools! I myself was a shaggy student—my hair was so long! I would not have cut my hair even now if it weren't falling out. It is falling out rapidly. I'll soon be bald. And I can't wear a wig like—a spy."

He lit a cigarette and felt that it was too much for him—the smoke was so bitter and unpleasant.

"Shall I go up and say to them: 'Ladies and gentlemen, it was all a joke, just a joke'? But they will not believe me. They may even give me a thrashing."