The two friends are always ready to fly at one another, and go on like that all their lives, and yet they cannot separate.

Parting, in fact, is utterly impossible.

The one who has begun the quarrel and separated will be the first to fall ill and even die, perhaps, if the separation comes off.

I know for a positive fact that several times Stepan Trofimovitch has jumped up from the sofa and beaten the wall with his fists after the most intimate and emotional _tete-a-tete_ with Varvara Petrovna.
This proceeding was by no means an empty symbol; indeed, on one occasion, he broke some plaster off the wall.

It may be asked how I come to know such delicate details.