from book i’ve been reading lately! nabokov is the MAN!!
I did not stir.
“A lie,” he repeated a minute later.
I did not stir, and presently I began to breathe with the dispassionate rhythm of sleep.
He listened, that was certain. I listened to his listening. He listened to my listening to his listening. Something snapped. I noticed that I was not thinking at all of what I thought I was thinking; attempted to catch my consciousness tripping, but got mazed myself.
“Why is it so? Because Felix, those two belong to different classes; and speaking of classes, let us imagine a man who travels fourth-class without a ticket and another who travels first, without one either: X sits on a hard bench; Mr. Y lolls on a cushioned seat; but both have empty purses–or, to be precise, Mr. Y has got a purse to show, though empty, whereas X has not even that and can show nothing but holes in the lining of his pocket.
“By speaking thus I am trying to make you grasp the difference between us: I am an actor, living generally on air, but I always have elastic hopes for the future; they may be stretched indefinitely, such hopes, without busting. You are denied even that; and you would have always remained a pauper, had not a miracle occurred; that miracle is my meeting you.”
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