She did not answer.

"Yesterday, you remember, Sasha blamed me for doing nothing," he
said, after a brief silence. "Well, he is right, absolutely right!
I do nothing and can do nothing. My precious, why is it? Why is it
that the very thought that I may some day fix a cockade on my cap
and go into the government service is so hateful to me? Why do I
feel so uncomfortable when I see a lawyer or a Latin master or a
member of the Zemstvo? O Mother Russia! O Mother Russia! What a
burden of idle and useless people you still carry! How many like
me are upon you, long-suffering Mother!"

And from the fact that he did nothing he drew generalizations,
seeing in it a sign of the times.

"When we are married let us go together into the country, my precious;
there we will work! We will buy ourselves a little piece of land
with a garden and a river, we will labour and watch life. Oh, how
splendid that will be!"

He took off his hat, and his hair floated in the wind, while she
listened to him and thought: "Good God, I wish I were home!"

When they were quite near the house they overtook Father Andrey.

"Ah, here's father coming," cried Andrey Andreitch, delighted, and
he waved his hat. "I love my dad really," he said as he paid the
cabman. "He's a splendid old fellow, a dear old fellow."