thought how we’ll manage. I’ll take the cushions off all the sofas, and lay them down on the floor, up against the curtain here—for you and me—so that we shall be together. For if they come in and look about now, you know, they’ll find her, and carry her away, and they’ll be asking me questions, and I shall say I did it, and then they’ll take me away, too, don’t you see? So let her lie close to us—close to you and me.”
“Yes, yes,” agreed the prince, warmly.
“So we will not say anything about it, or let them take her away?”
“Not for anything!” cried the other; “no, no, no!”
“So I had decided, my friend; not to give her up to anyone,” continued Rogojin. “We’ll be very quiet. I have only been out of the house one hour all day, all the rest of the time I have been with her. I dare say the air is very bad here. It is so hot. Do you find it bad?”
“I don’t know—perhaps—by morning it will be.”
“I’ve covered her with oilcloth—best American oilcloth, and put the sheet over that, and four jars of disinfectant, on account of the smell—as they did at Moscow—you remember? And she’s lying so still; you shall see, in the morning, when it’s light. What! can’t you get up?” asked Rogojin, seeing the other was trembling so that he could not rise from his seat.
“My legs won’t move,” said the prince; “it’s fear, I know. When my fear is over, I’ll get up—”
“Wait a bit—I’ll make the bed, and you can lie down. I’ll lie down, too, and we’ll listen and watch, for I don’t know yet what I shall do … I tell you beforehand, so that you may be ready in case I—”
Muttering these disconnected words, Rogojin began to make up the beds. It was clear that he had devised these beds long before; last night he