NEKHLUDOFF AND THE PRISONERS.
Their conversation was interrupted by the inspector, who said that the time was up, and the prisoners and their friends must part. Nekhludoff took leave of Vera Doukhova and went to the door, where he stopped to watch what was going on.
The inspector's order called forth only heightened animation among the prisoners in the room, but no one seemed to think of going. Some rose and continued to talk standing, some went on talking without rising. A few began crying and taking leave of each other. The mother and her consumptive son seemed especially pathetic. The young fellow kept twisting his bit of paper and his face seemed angry, so great were his efforts not to be infected by his mother's emotion. The mother, hearing that it was time to part, put her head on his shoulder and sobbed and sniffed aloud.
The girl with the prominent eyes--Nekhludoff could not help watching her--was standing opposite the sobbing mother, and was saying something to her in a soothing tone. The old man with the blue spectacles stood holding his daughter's hand and nodding in answer to what she said. The young lovers rose, and, holding each other's hands, looked silently into one another's eyes.
"These are the only two who are merry," said a young man with a short coat who stood by Nekhludoff's side, also looking at those who were about to part, and pointed to the lovers. Feeling Nekhludoff's and the young man's eyes fixed on them, the lovers-- the young man with the rubber coat and the pretty girl--stretched out their arms, and with their hands clasped in each other's, danced round and round again. "To-night they are going to be married here in prison, and she will follow him to Siberia," said the young man.
"What is he?"
"A convict, condemned to penal servitude. Let those two at least have a little joy, or else it is too painful," the young man added, listening to the sobs of the consumptive lad's mother.
"Now, my good people! Please, please do not oblige me to have recourse to severe measures," the inspector said, repeating the same words several times over. "Do, please," he went on in a weak, hesitating manner. "It is high time. What do you mean by it? This sort of thing is quite impossible. I am now asking you for the last time," he repeated wearily, now putting out his cigarette and then lighting another.
It was evident that, artful, old, and common as were the devices enabling men to do evil to others without feeling responsible for it, the inspector could not but feel conscious that he was one of those who were guilty of causing the sorrow which manifested itself in this room. And it was apparent that this troubled him sorely. At length the prisoners and their visitors began to go--the first out of the inner, the latter out of the outer door. The man with the rubber jacket passed out among them, and the consumptive youth and the dishevelled man. Mary Pavlovna went out with the boy born in prison.
The visitors went out too. The old man with the blue spectacles, stepping heavily, went out, followed by Nekhludoff.
"Yes, a strange state of things this," said the talkative young man, as if continuing an interrupted conversation, as he descended the stairs side by side with Nekhludoff. "Yet we have reason to be grateful to the inspector who does not keep strictly to the rules, kind-hearted fellow. If they can get a talk it does relieve their hearts a bit, after all!"
While talking to the young man, who introduced himself as Medinzeff, Nekhludoff reached the hall. There the inspector came up to them with weary step.
"If you wish to see Maslova," he said, apparently desiring to be polite to Nekhludoff, "please come to-morrow."
"Very well," answered Nekhludoff, and hurried away, experiencing more than ever that sensation of moral nausea which he always felt on entering the prison.
The sufferings of the evidently innocent Menshoff seemed terrible, and not so much his physical suffering as the perplexity, the distrust in the good and in God which he must feel, seeing the cruelty of the people who tormented him without any reason.
Terrible were the disgrace and sufferings cast on these hundreds of guiltless people simply because something was not written on paper as it should have been. Terrible were the brutalised jailers, whose occupation is to torment their brothers, and who were certain that they were fulfilling an important and useful duty; but most terrible of all seemed this sickly, elderly, kind-hearted inspector, who was obliged to part mother and son, father and daughter, who were just the same sort of people as he and his own children.
"What is it all for?" Nekhludoff asked himself, and could not find an answer.
典狱长站起来宣布，探监的时间到了，必须分手。聂赫留朵夫同薇拉的谈话就这样被打断了。聂赫留朵夫起身同薇拉告别，走到门口又站住，观察着眼前的种种景象。
“各位先生，时候到了，时候到了，”典狱长说，一会儿站起来，一会儿又坐下。
典狱长的要求只是使屋里的犯人和探监的人更加紧张，他们都不想分手。有些人站起来，但还是说个不停。有些仍坐着说话。有些在那里告别，哭泣。那个害痨病的青年同他母亲的会面特别叫人感动。他一直摆弄着那张纸，但脸色越来越愤激。他竭力克制感情，免得受他母亲情绪的影响。他母亲一听说要分手，就伏在他肩膀上，放声痛哭，不住地吸着鼻子。那个生有一双绵羊眼睛的姑娘——聂赫留朵夫不由得注意着她——站在哀哭的母亲旁边，劝慰着她。那个戴蓝眼镜的老头儿，拉住女儿的手站着，一面听她说话，一面连连点头。那对年轻的情人站起来，手拉着手，默默地瞧着对方的眼睛。
“瞧，只有他们两个才开心，”穿短上衣的青年，站在聂赫留朵夫身边，也象他那样冷眼旁观着，这时指着那对情人说。
这对情人——穿橡胶上衣的小伙子和浅黄头发、模样可爱的姑娘——发觉聂赫留朵夫和那个青年在看他们，就手拉着手，伸直胳膊，身子向后仰，一面笑，一面旋舞起来。
“今儿晚上他们在这儿，在监牢里结婚，然后她跟他一起到西伯利亚去，”那个青年说。
“他是什么人？”
“是个苦役犯。就让他们俩快活快活吧，要不在这儿听着那些声音实在太难受了，”穿短上衣的青年一边听着患痨病青年的母亲的啼哭，一边又说。
“各位先生！请吧，请吧！别逼得我采取严厉的措施，”典狱长再三说。“请吧，是的，请吧！”他有气无力地说。“你们这算什么呀？时间早就到了。这样可不行啊。我最后一次对你们说，”他没精打采地重复说，一会儿点上马里兰香烟，一会儿又把它熄灭。
那些纵容一些人欺凌另一些人而又无需负责的理由，不管多么冠冕堂皇，由来已久，司空见惯，典狱长显然还是不能不承认，在造成这一屋子人痛苦上他是罪魁祸首之一，因此心情十分沉重。
最后，犯人和探监的人纷纷走散：犯人往里走，探监的人向外道门走。男人们，包括穿橡胶上衣的，患痨病的和皮肤黝黑、头发蓬乱的，都走了；玛丽雅·巴夫洛夫娜带着在狱里出生的男孩也走了。
探监的人也都走了。戴蓝眼镜的老头儿迈着沉重的步子走出去，聂赫留朵夫也跟着他出去。
“是的，这里的情况真怪，”那个健谈的青年跟聂赫留朵夫一起下楼时说，仿佛他的话头刚被打断，此刻继续说下去。
“还得谢谢上尉，他真是个好心人，不死扣规章制度。让大家谈一谈，心里也好过些。”
“难道在别的监狱里不能这样探监吗？”
“嗐，根本不行。得一个一个分开来谈，还得隔一道铁栅栏。”
聂赫留朵夫同那个自称梅顿采夫的健谈青年一边谈，一边下楼。这时，典狱长带着疲劳的神色走到他们跟前。
“您要见玛丝洛娃，请明天来吧，”他说，显然想对聂赫留朵夫表示殷勤。
“太好了，”聂赫留朵夫说着就急急地走了出去。
明肖夫无缘无故饱受煎熬，真是可怕。但最可怕的与其说是肉体上的痛苦，不如说是由于他眼看那些无故折磨他的人的残忍，心里产生困惑，因此对善和上帝不再相信。可怕的是那几百个人没有一点罪，只因为身份证上有几个字不对，就受尽屈辱和苦难。可怕的是那些看守麻木不仁，他们折磨同胞兄弟，还满以为是在做一件重大有益的工作。不过，聂赫留朵夫觉得最可怕的还是那个年老体弱、心地善良的典狱长，他不得不拆散人家的母子和父女，而他们都是亲骨肉，就同他和他的子女一样。
“这究竟是为什么呀？”聂赫留朵夫问着自己，同时精神上感到极度恶心，又逐渐发展成为生理上的恶心。他每次来到监狱都有这样的感觉，但问题的答案始终没有找到。