He released her arm and sat down, looking at her with a heavy and obstinate wonder. Something was moving about his cheekbones, a little ball of muscle, with a disturbed motion; but his expression was tranquil, serious, somewhat melancholy. And this made him again seem strange and unknown to her--and also very handsome.
»Well, will you know me again?« she exclaimed, and surprised herself by adding a coarse reproof. He raised his brows in surprise and spoke to her calmly, but without averting his eyes, dully, remotely, as from a great distance.
»Listen, Liuba, certainly you can betray me, not only you, but anyone in this house, or in the street. One shout--Halt! arrest him!--and men will come in their tens and hundreds and try to get me--or kill me. And for what reason? Merely because I have done no harm, merely because I have devoted all my life to these very people. Do you understand what it means, to sacrifice one's life?«
»No, I do not,« the girl retorted harshly, but listening attentively.
»Some do it out of stupidity, some for spite. Because, Liuba, a common man cannot endure a fine man, and the wicked do not love the good....«
»Don't think, Liuba, that I am simply praising myself. But just look what my life has been, what it is! From the age of fourteen I have been rubbing along in prisons, expelled from school, expelled from home. My parents drove me out. Once I was nearly shot dead, saved only by a miracle. Try to picture it--all one's life passed in this way, all for the sake of others, and for oneself, nothing--yes, nothing!«
»And what induced you to be so ... fine?« she asked jeeringly. But he replied seriously:
»I don't know. I must have been born so.«
»And I was born such a common sort of thing! And yet I came into the world the same way you did, didn't I?«
But he was not listening. All his mind was held by the vision of his own past, so unexpectedly, so simply heroic, called up by his own words.
»Yes ... think of it ... I'm 26 years old and there are already grey hairs on my head, and yet until today ...« he hesitated a moment and went on firmly, proudly. »Up to now I have never known a woman.... Never ... do you understand? You are the first I even see ... like that. And to tell the truth, I am just a little ashamed to be looking at your bare arms.«