Yevsey awoke with a certain secret resolution, which held his bosom as with a broad invisible belt. It stifled him. The ends of this band, he felt, were held by some insistent being, who obstinately led him on to an inescapable something. He harkened to this desire and tested it carefully with an awkward, timorous thought. At the same time he did not want it to define itself. Melnikov dressed and washed, but uncombed, was sitting at the table next to the samovar, munching his bread lazily like an ox. "You sleep well," he said. "I drowsed a little, then awoke, while it was still night, and suddenly saw a body beside me. I remembered that Tania wasn't here, but I had forgotten about you. Then it seemed to me that that person was lying there. He came and lay down--wanted to warm himself." Melnikov laughed a stupid laugh, which, apparently, embarrassed him the next instant. "However, it's not a joke. I lighted a match and looked at you. It's my idea you're not well. Your face is blue like--" He broke off with a cough, but Yevsey guessed the unspoken word, and thought gloomily: "Rayisa, too, said I would choke myself." The thought frightened him, clearly alluding to something he did not want to remember. Then he tried insistently to evoke some desire which might help him to befool himself, to conceal the unavoidable, that which had already been determined. "What time is it?" he asked. "Eleven." "Early still." "Early," confirmed the host, and both were silent. Then Melnikov proposed: "Let's live together, eh?" "I don't know." "What?" "What will happen," said Yevsey, after reflecting a moment. "Nothing will happen. You're a quiet fellow. You speak little, neither do I like to speak always. If it's tiresome I speak, or else I keep quiet all the time. When you ask about something, one says one thing, another says another thing, and a third still another. Well, the devil take you, think I. You have a whole lot of words, but none that are true." "Yes," said Yevsey for the sake of answering. "Something must be done," he thought in self-defense. Suddenly he resolved, "At first I will--Sasha--" But he did not wish to represent to himself what would be afterward. "Where are we going to go?" he inquired of Melnikov. "To the office," Melnikov replied with unconcern. "I don't want to," declared Yevsey drily and firmly. Melnikov combed his beard for a time in silence. Then he shoved the dishes from him, and placing his elbows on the table, said meditatively in a subdued voice: "Our service has become hard. All have begun to rebel, but who are the real rebels here? Make it out, if you can." "I know who's the first scoundrel and skunk," muttered Klimkov. "Sasha you mean?" inquired Melnikov. Yevsey gave no reply. He was quietly beginning to devise a plan of action. Melnikov started to dress, sniffing loudly. "So we're going to live together?" "Yes." "Are you going to bring your things to-day?" "I don't know."