have against me. Enough... I only tell you that you may know... I will try to manage somehow to put it to my mother and sister so that they won’t be frightened... My sister’s future is secure, however, now, I believe... and my mother’s must be too... Well, that’s all. Be careful, though. Will you come and see me in prison when I am there?”

“Oh, I will, I will.”

They sat side by side, both mournful and dejected, as though they had been cast up by the tempest alone on some deserted shore. He looked at Sonia and felt how great was her love for him, and strange to say he felt it suddenly burdensome and painful to be so loved. Yes, it was a strange and awful sensation! On his way to see Sonia he had felt that all his hopes rested on her; he expected to