Perfishka began to roll his eyes, made a fierce grimace, and cried in a hoarse voice, imitating Petrusha:
"'I want to go with uncle to the holy men.'
"Jakov says, 'I could pray for you too.' Then Petrusha begins to roar, 'I'll teach you to pray!' Jakov sticks to his point. 'Let me go. God is pleased with the prayers of sons for their fathers' sins.' My word, how Petrusha hit him in the mouth, and again and again."
"I can't live with him," cried Jakov. "I'll go away. I'll hang myself. Why did he beat me--why? All I said came from my heart."
Ilya's heart sank at this outcry, and with a despairing shrug of his shoulders, he left the cellar. He was glad to hear that his uncle was going on a pilgrimage. Once Terenti was gone, he would finally leave this house, take a little room somewhere for himself, and be his own master. As he entered his room, Terenti appeared, following him. His eyes shone, his face wore an expression of joy. He approached Ilya and said: "Well, I'm going. O Lord, how glad I am! To step out of a cave, a cellar, into God's world. Surely He will not despise my prayer, since He lets me get away from this place."
"Do you know what's happened to Jakov?" said Ilya, drily.
"What do you say? That is wrong of him! Silly boy! And just now he was begging his father to let him go with me."
"Were you there when his father beat him?"
"Why, can't you understand? That's why he's got drunk."
Ilya saw clearly that Jakov's fate was a matter of indifference to his uncle, and that strengthened his feeling of enmity against the hunchback. He had never seen Terenti so overjoyed, and the sight of this happiness, coming right after Jakov's misery, moved him strangely. He sat down at the window and said:
"Petrusha is there. I want to talk to you."
The hunchback came up to him and said mysteriously:
"I'm getting away. You're staying behind and that means--well----"
"Yes--yes, I want to; it isn't easy to say," said Terenti, in a subdued way, while his eyes blinked.
"Yes--yes--about you, too, but presently. I've saved some money."
Ilya looked at him and laughed maliciously.
"What d'you mean? Why d'you laugh?" cried his uncle, frightened.
"Oh, nothing. Well, then, you've _saved_ some money, have you?"