Marianna did not speak.
'Now Solomin,' began Nezhdanov again, 'though he does not believe. . .'
'What?'
'No! He does not believe . . . but he does not need to; he moves calmly forward. A man going along a road to a town doesn't ask himself whether the town has a real existence. He goes on and on. That's like Solomin. And nothing more's needed. But I . . . can't go forward; I don't want to go back; standing still I'm sick of. Whom could I presume to ask to be my companion? You know the proverb, "One at each end of the pole and the burden is borne easily"; but if one cannot hold up his end, what becomes of the other?'
'Alexey,' Marianna ventured uncertainly, 'I think you are exaggerating. We love one another, don't we?'
Nezhdanov gave a heavy sigh.
'Marianna . . . I revere you . . . and you pity me, and each of us trusts implicitly in the other's honesty; that's the real truth! But there's no love between us.'
'Stop, Alexey, what are you saying? Why, this very day, directly, there will be a search for us.. . . We must set off together, you know, and not part.. . .'
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