Page:The Career of a Nihilist.djvu/39

Vasily had received Lena's message late in the night, and had come to inquire immediately about the letter. Finding Andrey absent, he had resolved to wait until he came back, and had fallen asleep. On the floor, just by the side of the bed, lay the book with which he had tried to beguile the time.

Unwilling to awaken his friend, Andrey looked round to see how to find accommodation for both. There was nothing for it but to improvise a camp bed. He spread upon the floor a large sheet of an uncut newspaper. A winter overcoat would do very well for a mattress, and the Nihilist’s inevitable plaid for a blanket. But how about a pillow? Vasily had under his head both the small woollen things with which the landlady had supplied her lodger. Andrey very judiciously concluded that his guest could do very well with one of them. Slipping unceremoniously his hand under his friend’s head, he removed the other. Thus disturbed, Vasily muttered in his sleep some inarticulate sounds of selfish protest. But he seemed to admit at once that he was in the wrong, for he grunted, without opening his eyes, something in a conciliatory tone, and when Andrey let his head drop again did not trouble any further.

Andrey undressed, put his watch by his side that he might be sure to rise in time, and as his head touched the pillow almost instantaneously slept the sleep of the righteous.