"For you`ll admit that if we don`t know for sure how many of them there are... hundreds of lives may depend on it, while there are only two of us. Besides, I want to go very much and certainly will go, so don`t hinder me," said he. "It will only make things worse..."

‘I don’t know,’ replied Newman.

Whether they were playing the ring and string game or the ruble game or talking as now, Nicholas did not leave Sonya`s side, and gazed at her with quite new eyes. It seemed to him that it was only today, thanks to that burnt-cork mustache, that he had fully learned to know her. And really, that evening, Sonya was brighter, more animated, and prettier than Nicholas had ever seen her before.