repentant, uncle. He’ll never do it again, uncle.” “I see you’re quite excited over it. Just the kind of effect fellows of that stamp will have on the mind of a boy. This is just where the danger comes in. Don’t forget your name, Pasha. Come, throw it all out of your clever little head. There’s a good boy.” “Uncle darling, he’ll never do it again. Let him stay where he is.” “You’re a foolish boy. Whether he’ll do it again or no, his very presence in this town would be a source of danger. Whoever sets his eyes on him will say to himself: ‘Here is the man who once talked of the way people live under a constitution.’ So you see he’ll be a reminder of unlawful ideas. We have no use for fellows of this sort. They are like living poison. Do you see the point? Let your teacher thank his stars the case was not put in the hands[27] of the gendarmes entirely, or he would be sent to a colder place.” [27] All this the governor said in the playful manner of one conversing with a child and, by way of clinching the matter, he explained that he had nothing to do with the case and that it was under the jurisdiction of the “curator of educational district.” Pavel was in despair and his being treated as a boy threw him into a rage, but he held himself in check for Pievakin’s sake. “Oh, the curator will do anything you ask of him, uncle,” he said in a tone of entreaty and resentment at once. “You don’t want your uncle to write letters begging for a fellow who was foolish enough to get mixed up in such an affair as that, do you? I used to think you really cared for your uncle.” Pavel contracted his forehead and put out his chin sullenly. [28] [28] CHAPTER IV. THE “DEMONSTRATION.” AT the hour of Pievakin’s departure the Miroslav railway station was crowded with gymnasium pupils of both sexes, but Pavel was not among them. He had not been informed that such a gathering was in contemplation at all. Alexandre Alexandrovich, a satchel slung across his breast, wan and haggard, but flushed with excitement, was bustling about in a listless, mechanical way. He was accompanied by his large family and the teacher of mathematics. A number of gendarmes,
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