And they wanted to be just as kind to you now, Silla! That Veyergang is on the watch for you! If I'm not on the watch for him----" He suddenly looked pale and ugly.
"What are you thinking of, Nikolai?
Don't go on like that!" "You may well say what was I thinking of, to stand there grinding and filing away the whole month at my probation work, and then let you go up there among that pack of wolves.

But I was born like that--that everything should go wrong with me!" Silla stood, as she always did when Nikolai put on this tone, downcast and dispirited, her slender figure bending forwards, and her eyes on the ground.
"We two, Silla," he continued at length, with a shake as if of resolution, but his voice trembled--"we two have been, as it were, brought up together.

And with things as they were, if they could make me go wrong, it would have been still easier for you to be twisted by them, for I was strong, you see; but you were weak, and had always to creep like a cat among lies and difficulties.

And so--so--I thought that we two--who have always stood by one another--and I haven't had anyone else I could trust, as you know, Silla, and neither have you--that we should join hands.

And if you're of the same mind, then----" He had clasped his broad hands round the gate-post, and was squeezing it with all the strength of his square-set figure, while he waited for her answer.