Had he asked it in some other way, I might not have fallen into his clutches, but his words frenzied me. "Not dare to steal? You don't need daring for that, but just meanness. All right, let's steal." Here he laughed, the scoundrel, and asked: "What about the sin?" "I'll take care of my own sins," I answered. "Good," he said, "and know that from now on each day brings you nearer the wedding." He enticed me, fool that I was, like a wolf with a lamb in a trap. And so it commenced. I wasn't stupid in business, and I had always had enough audacity in me. We began to rob the peasants as if we were playing a match. I followed each move he made with a bolder one. We said not a word, only looked at each other. There was mockery in his eyes and wrath burned in mine. He was the victor, and since I lost all to him, I did not want to be outdone in wickedness by him. I falsified the weights in measuring flax, I did not mark the fines when the peasants' cattle strayed on the landlord's pastures, and I cheated the peasants out of every kopeck I could. But I did not count the money nor gather in the rubles myself. I let everything go to Titoff, which, of course, did not make things easier either for me or the peasants. In a word, I was as if possessed, and my heart was heavy and cold. When I thought of God I burned with shame. Nevertheless, I threw reproaches at Him more than once. "Why dost Thou not keep me from falling with Thy strong arm? Why dost Thou try me beyond my strength? Dost Thou not see, O Lord, how my soul is being destroyed?" There were times when Olga seemed strange to me, and when I looked at her and thought, of her hostilely. "For your sake, unhappy one, I am selling my soul." After such words I grew ashamed of myself before her and became kind and gentle--as gentle as possible. But, of course, it was not out of pity for myself nor for the peasants that I suffered and gnashed my teeth in wrath; but for sheer chagrin that I could not conquer Titoff and that I had to act according to his will. When I remembered the words he often used against pious people, I became cold all over; and he saw the situation through and through and triumphed. "Well, my holy one," he said, "it is time to begin thinking of your own nest. You will be too crowded here when you have a wife. You will have children, of course." He called me "holy one." I did not answer. He called me that more and more often; but his daughter became all the more loving, all the more tender to me. She understood clearly how heavy my heart was. Then Titoff begged from the landlord, Loseff, when he went to pay his respects to him, a little piece of land for me. They gave him a pretty place behind the manor building, and he began to build us a little house. And I continued to oppress and to cheat.