"If thou dost not go," he argued with himself, "thou wilt surely lose thy reason!" He was afraid of that; he was afraid of his nerves. He was convinced that as soon as he should see all that with his own eyes, all obsessions would flee like a nocturnal nightmare.--"And the journey will occupy not more than a week in all," he thought.... "What is a week? And there is no other way of ridding myself of it." The rising sun illuminated his room; but the light of day did not disperse the shades of night which weighed upon him, did not alter his decision. Platosha came near having an apoplectic stroke when he communicated his decision to her. She even squatted down on her heels ... her legs gave way under her. "To Kazan? Why to Kazan?" she whispered, protruding her eyes which were already blind enough without that. She would not have been any more astounded had she learned that her Yasha was going to marry the neighbouring baker's daughter, or depart to America.--"And shalt thou stay long in Kazan?" "I shall return at the end of a week," replied Aratoff, as he stood half-turned away from his aunt, who was still sitting on the floor. Platosha tried to remonstrate again, but Aratoff shouted at her in an utterly unexpected and unusual manner: "I am not a baby," he yelled, turning pale all over, while his lips quivered and his eyes flashed viciously.--"I am six-and-twenty years of age. I know what I am about,--I am free to do as I please!--I will not permit any one.... Give me money for the journey; prepare a trunk with linen and clothing ... and do not bother me! I shall return at the end of a week, Platosha," he added, in a softer tone. Platosha rose to her feet, grunting, and, making no further opposition, wended her way to her chamber. Yasha had frightened her.--"I have not a head on my shoulders," she remarked to the cook, who was helping her to pack Yasha's things,--"not a head--but a bee-hive ... and what bees are buzzing there I do not know! He is going away to Kazan, my mother, to Ka-za-an!" The cook, who had noticed their yard-porter talking for a long time to the policeman about something, wanted to report this circumstance to her mistress, but she did not dare, and merely thought to herself: "To Kazan? If only it isn't some place further away!"--And Platonida Ivanovna was so distracted that she did not even utter her customary prayer.--In such a catastrophe as this even the Lord God could be of no assistance! That same day Aratoff set off for Kazan. XII