Hardly knowing why, they kissed each other.
There was a long whistle, and the train began to move.
"Ah! my boy. I had grown so fond of you," exclaimed Ivanoff suddenly.
"You're the only real man that I have ever met."
"And you're the only one that ever cared for me," said Sanine as,
laughing, he leapt on to the foot-board of a carriage as it rolled
past.
"Off we go!" he cried. "Good-bye!"
The carriages hurried past Ivanoff as if, like Sanine, they had
suddenly resolved to get away. The red light appeared in the gloom, and
then seemed to become stationary. Ivanoff mournfully watched its
disappearance, and then sauntered homewards through the ill-lighted
streets.
"Shall I drown my sorrow?" he thought; and, as he entered the tavern,
the image of his own grey, tedious life like a ghost went in with him
also.