Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/190



. How can I go? How can I look into their faces? How can I look into her eyes? (Again lies down.) Oh, if there were a hole in the ground, I would go through it. People would not see me, and I would not see them. (Again gets up.) I will not go— To perdition with them! I will not go. (Takes off his boots and picks up the rope; makes a noose of it, and puts it around his neck.) That's what I will do.

(running up out of breath). Nikíta, O Nikíta! I declare, he does not answer. Nikíta, are you drunk? Come, Nikíta, come! The people are waiting for you.

. What have you done with me? I am no longer a man.

. What is the matter with you? Go, my dear, and bless them in all honour, as is proper: The people are waiting for you.

. How can I bless them?

. As usual. Don't you know how?

. I know, I know. Whom shall I bless? What have I done with her?

. What have you done? There you are again at it! Nobody knows about it: neither cat nor kit nor the pope knows it. The girl is marrying of her own will.

. How of her own will?

. She is marrying through fear. Anyway she is marrying. What is to be done? She ought to have thought in time. Now she can't refuse. There is no