"Will he do it?" Jakov asked thoughtfully.
"Why not? She won't get in the way, and it's a good thing for her. Look at her, her eyes are shining, hardly like a live person."
"Yes--yes," said Jakov. After a moment's pause, he began to whistle softly.
"Now I'm done for, all alone here, like the moon in the sky."
"I'll take to drink," said Jakov, shaking his head.
Masha looked at him, hung her head, and went towards the door; from there she spoke in a reproachful, sad voice:
"And you're very strong, aren't you? leaving a friend in the lurch. Nice way you treat me--how shall I endure it without you?"
He sat down at the table opposite Ilya with a gloomy face, and said:
"Suppose I just go with Terenti, too, eh! on the quiet?"
"Yes, but my father'll put the police on me!"
All were silent. Jakov began with forced gaiety:
"It's jolly to get drunk! You think of nothing, you understand nothing, and it's jolly."
Masha put the samovar on the table, and said, shaking her head:
"Oh, you Aren't you ashamed to talk like that?"
"You can't talk," cried Jakov, crossly. "Your father doesn't worry you--let's you do as you like. You live as you please."
"A nice sort of life!" answered Masha. "I'd run away to get rid of it."
"It's bad for us all," said Ilya softly, and fell to brooding again.
Jakov began looking thoughtfully out of the window.
"If one could get away, anywhere, out of all this, sit in a wood, by a river, and think about things."
"That would be silly, to run away from life," said Ilya, peevishly. Jakov looked at him inquiringly, and said shyly:
"Very old. It's bound in leather. It looks like a psalter, and it's really a heretic book. I bought it of a Tartar for seventy kopecks."
"What's it called?" asked Ilya. He had no wish for conversation, but felt that silence might be perilous for him, and compelled himself to keep talking.
"The title's torn out," answered Jakov, sinking his voice, "but it's all about the very beginning of things. It's difficult, and so horrible. It says that Thales, of Miletus, first of all said: 'All life proceeds from the water, and God dwells in matter as the power of life.' And then there was a wicked man called Diagoras, who taught that there were more gods than one, and he didn't believe in God properly. And Epicurus is talked about, and he said that there is a God, but He troubles about no one, and cares for no one. That's to say that if there is a God, men have nothing to do with Him; at least, that's how I understand it. Live just as you please, there's no one who takes any heed what you do."