If another suffer for that I cannot
help it, and if human nature is so weak, so stupid, it is right that it
should suffer. But perhaps I am not myself at all, Ivan Andreievitch.
Perhaps this is a ghost that you see.... What if the town has changed in
the night and strange souls have slipped into our old bodies?
"Isn't there a stir about the town? Is it I that pursue Nicholas, or is
it my ghost that pursues myself? Is it Nicholas that I pursue? Is not
Nicholas dead, and is it not my hope of release that I follow?... Don't
be so sure of your ground, Ivan Andreievitch. You know the proverb:
'There's a secret city in every man's heart. It is at that city's altars
that the true prayers are offered.' There has been more than one
Revolution in the last two months."
He came up to me:
"Do not think too badly of me, Ivan Andreievitch, afterwards. I'm a
haunted man, you know."
He bent forward and kissed me on the lips. A moment later he was gone.
XII
That Tuesday night poor young Bohun will remember to his grave--and
beyond it, I expect.
He came in from his work about six in the evening and found Markovitch
and Semyonov sitting in the dining-room.
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