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diff --git a/39166.txt b/39166.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c8cf2e --- /dev/null +++ b/39166.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13830 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The white terror and the red, by Abraham Cahan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The White Terror and The Red + A novel of revolutionary Russia + +Author: Abraham Cahan + +Release Date: March 16, 2012 [EBook #39166] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED *** + + + + +Produced by Rosanna Murphy, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED + + + + + THE WHITE TERROR + AND + THE RED + + A Novel of Revolutionary Russia + + BY + A. CAHAN + Author of "Yekl" and "The Imported Bridegroom." + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK + A. S. BARNES & COMPANY + 1905 + + + + + Copyright, 1905 + BY A. S. BARNES & COMPANY + + _All rights reserved_ + + _Published February, 1905_ + _Second Printing, February, 1905_ + _Third Printing, March, 1905_ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. An Affront to His Czar 1 + + II. The White Terror 14 + + III. Pievakin Pleads Guilty 20 + + IV. The "Demonstration" 28 + + V. Pavel's First Step 40 + + VI. A Meeting on New Terms 57 + + VII. "Terrorism Without Violence" 62 + + VIII. Makar's Canvass 76 + + IX. A Day Underground 81 + + X. The Czar's Escape 93 + + XI. A Mysterious Arrest 97 + + XII. A Bewildering Encounter 103 + + XIII. A Gendarme's Sister 112 + + XIV. Underground Miroslav 121 + + XV. A Warning 135 + + XVI. Clara at Home 147 + + XVII. The Countess' Discovery 151 + + XVIII. Pavel at Boyko's Court 160 + + XIX. Strawberries 169 + + XX. A "Conspiracy Trip" 178 + + XXI. Makar's Father 187 + + XXII. From Cellar to Palace 196 + + XXIII. An Unforeseen Suggestion 205 + + XXIV. Vladimir Finds His Cause 211 + + XXV. Clara Becomes "Illegal" 227 + + XXVI. On Sacred Ground 235 + + XXVII. A Postponed Wedding 244 + + XXVIII. A Second Courtship 252 + + XXIX. A Hunted Monarch 260 + + XXX. The Mystery of a Shop 267 + + XXXI. A Reassuring Search 277 + + XXXII. The Red Terror 287 + + XXXIII. The Revelation 299 + + XXXIV. The Czar Takes Courage 310 + + XXXV. A Hunted People 319 + + XXXVI. A "Paper from the Czar" 331 + + XXXVII. The Defence Committee 339 + + XXXVIII. The Nihilist's Guard 357 + + XXXIX. The Riot 371 + + XL. Light out of Darkness 389 + + XLI. Pavel Becomes "Illegal" 401 + + XLII. Ominous Footsteps 408 + + XLIII. A Message Through the Wall 423 + + + + +THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED + + + + +THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AN AFFRONT TO HIS CZAR. + + +Alexander II. passed part of the summer of 1874 in a German +health-resort taking the mineral waters. When not in the castle in which +he was staying with his train he affected the life of an ordinary +citizen. He did so as much from necessity as from choice. Czar or +subject, the same water must be drunk at the same spot and hour by all +who seek its cure. Nor can any distinction be made in the matter of the +walk which the patient is to take after draining his two or three +gobletsful. + +The promenade at a watering place is a great parade-ground for the +display of plumage, the gayest and costliest gowns being reserved for +the procession that follows the taking of the remedy; but while the race +is under way and everybody is striving to throw everybody else into the +shade, the fact of their being there pierces each dress as with "X" +rays, showing their flesh to be of the same fragile clay. + +So the Czar accepted the levelling effect of the place good-naturedly +and sought diversion in the unsustained role of a common mortal. +Unsustained, because he carried his gigantic, beautiful form with a +graceful self-importance and a martial erectness that betrayed his +incognito even in the open country stretches to which he would stroll +off in search of mild adventure and flirtation. + +It was a late afternoon in the valley. The river glittered crimson. The +hills on the other side of the summer town were capped by a sultry haze. +Donkeys used in ascending these hills were trotting about impishly or +standing in stupid row awaiting custom. The sun blazed down upon a +parade of a hundred countries, including a jet black prince from Africa, +a rajah, a Chinaman in dazzling silks, a wealthy Galician Jew in atlas, +and a pasha with German features. + +The Czar, his immense figure encased in a light frock coat of excellent +fit, was sauntering along apparently unaccompanied except by his terrier +and cane. When saluted he would raise his straw hat and nod his enormous +well-shaped head with a cordiality that bordered on good-fellowship. He +seemed to relish this exchange of courtesies with people who were not +his subjects in this little republic of physical malady. It was as +though he felt apart from his autocratic self without feeling out of +that pampering atmosphere of deference and attention which was his +second nature; and he gave an effect of inhaling his freedom as one does +the first whiffs of spring air. + +As to his fellow patients, they either discovered something majestic in +the very dog that followed him, or were struck by the knuckles of his +ungloved hands, for example, as if it were remarkable that they should +be the same sort of knuckles as their own. He was strikingly well-built +and strikingly handsome. He wore thick close-cropped side whiskers of +the kind that is rarely becoming, but his face they became very well +indeed, adding majesty to a cast of large, clear-cut features. It was +the most monarchical face of its time, and yet it was anything but a +strong face. His imposing side whiskers and moustache left bare a full +sensuous mouth and a plump weak chin; his blueish eyes gave forth +suggestions of melancholy and anguish. Interest in him was whetted by +stories of his passion for Princess Dolgoruki, lady in waiting to the +Czarina; so the women at the watering place tried to decipher the tale +of his liaison in those sad amative eyes of his. + +Two refined looking, middle-aged women attracted attention by the +bizarre simplicity with which one of them was attired and coiffured. She +was extremely pale and made one think of an insane asylum or a convent. +She was grey, while her companion had auburn hair and was shorter and +flabbier of figure. They were conversing in French, but it was not their +native tongue. The one with the grey hair was Pani Oginska, a Polish +woman; the other a Russian countess named Anna Nicolayevna Varova +(Varoff). They had first met, in this watering place, less than a +fortnight ago, when a chat, in the course of which they warmed to each +other, led to the discovery that their estates lay in neighbouring +provinces in Little Russia. They were preceded by a slender youth of +eighteen in a broad-brimmed straw hat and a clean-shaven elderly little +man in one of soft grey felt. These were Prince Pavel Alexeyevich +Boulatoff, a son of the countess by a former marriage, and Alexandre +Alexandrovich Pievakin, his private tutor, as well as one of his +instructors at the gymnasium[A] of his native town. Pavel's straw hat +was too sedate for his childish face and was pushed down so low that a +delicately sculptured chin and mouth and the turned up tip of a rudely +hewn Russian nose was all one could see under its vast expanse of yellow +brim. The old man knew no German and this was his first trip abroad, so +his high-born pupil, who had an advantage over him in both these +respects, was explaining things to him, with an air at once patronising +and respectful. Presently Pavel interrupted himself. + + [A] A classical Russian high school modelled after its German + namesake. + +"The Czar!" he whispered, in a flutter. "The Czar!" he repeated over his +shoulder, addressing himself to his mother. + +Pievakin raised his glance, paling as he did so, but was so overawed by +the sight that he forthwith dropped his eyes, a sickly expression on his +lips. + +When the men came face to face with their monarch they made way and +snatched off their hats as if they were on fire. Countess Varoff, +Pavel's mother, curtseyed deeply, her flaccid insignificant little body +retreating toward the side of the promenade and then sinking to the +ground; while the Polish woman proceeded on her way stiffly without so +much as a nod of her head. The Czar returned the greeting of the Russian +woman gallantly and disappeared in the rear of them. + +The group walked on in nervous silence, the two women now in the lead. +When they reached a deserted spot the youth suddenly flushed a violent +red, and, thrusting out his finely chiselled chin at his mother, he +said, in quick pugnacious full-toned accents as out of keeping with his +boyish figure as his hat: + +"Mother, you are not going to keep up acquaintance with a person who has +offered an insult to our Czar." + +"Paul! What has come over you?" the countess stammered out, colouring +abjectly as she paused. + +"I mean just what I say, mother." + +The elderly little man by his side looked on sheepishly, the cold sweat +standing in beads on his forehead. + +"Don't mind this wild boy, I beg of you," Anna Nicolayevna said to the +Polish woman. "Don't pay the least attention to him. He imagines himself +a full grown man, but he is merely a silly boy and he gives me no end of +trouble. Don't take it ill, _ma chere_." She rattled it off in a great +flurry of embarrassment, straining the boy back tenderly, while she was +condemning him. + +"I don't take it ill at all," Pani Oginska answered tremulously. "He's +perfectly right. Your acquaintance has been a great pleasure to me, +countess, but I can see that my company at this place would be very +inconvenient to you. Adieu!" + +She walked off toward a row of new cottages, and Anna Nicolayevna, the +countess, stood gazing after her like one petrified. + +"You are a savage, Pasha," she whispered, in Russian. + +"Why am I? I have done what is right, and you feel it as well as I do," +he returned hotly, in his sedate, compact, combative voice, looking from +her to his teacher. When he was excited he sputtered out his sentences +in volleys, growling at his listener and seemingly about to flounce off. +This was the way he spoke now. "Why am I a savage? Can you afford to +associate with a woman who will behave in this impudent, in this +rebellious manner toward the Czar? Can you, now?" + +"That's neither here nor there," she said, with irritation, as they +resumed their walk. "She is a very unhappy creature. All that she holds +dear has been taken from her. Her husband was hanged during the Polish +rebellion and now her son, a college student, has been torn from her and +is dying in prison of consumption. If you were not so heartless you +would have some pity on her." + +"Her husband was hanged and her son is in prison and you wish to +associate with her! Do you really? What do you think of it, Alexandre +Alexandrovich?" + +"A very painful incident," Pievakin murmured, wretchedly. + +"As if I were eager for her company," she returned, timidly. "As if one +could help the chance acquaintances that fall into one's way while +travelling. Besides, _she_ is no rebel. Indeed, she is one of the most +charming women I ever met, and to hear her story is enough to break a +heart of stone. You have no sympathy, Pasha." + +"She is no rebel! Why, if she did in Russia what she did here a minute +ago she would be hustled off to Siberia in short order, and it would +serve her right, too. And because I don't want my mother to go with such +a person I have no sympathy." + +"Pardon me, Anna Nicolayevna," Pievakin interposed, with embarrassed +ardour, "but if I were you I should keep out of her way. She is an +unfortunate woman, but, God bless her,--Pasha is right, I think." + +"I should say I was," the boy said, triumphantly. "She wouldn't dare do +such a thing in Russia, would she? But then in Russia a woman of that +sort would have no chance to do anything of the kind. Oh, I do hate the +Germans for exposing the Czar to these insults. It is simply terrible, +terrible. Couldn't they arrange it so that he should not have to rub +shoulders with every Tom, Dick and Harry and be exposed to every sort of +affront? And yet when I say so I am a savage and have no heart." He +gnashed his teeth and burst into tears. + +"Hush, dear, I didn't mean it. Don't be excited, now." + +"But you did mean it; you know you did." + +"Sh, calm down, Pasha," the old man besought him, and Pavel's features +softened. + +Alexandre Alexandrovich was the only teacher at the high school of whom +Pavel was fond. He was an old-fashioned little man, with cravats of a +former generation and with features and movements which conveyed the +impression that he was forever making ready to bow. His cackling good +humour when the recitations were correct and fluent, his distressed air +when they were not; his mixed timidity and quick temper--these things +are recalled with fond smiles in Miroslav. He was attached to both his +subjects and when put on his mettle by the attention of his class he +really knew how to put life into the dullest lesson. On such occasions +his timid manner would disappear, and he would draw himself up, and go +strutting back and forth with long, defiant steps and hurling out his +sentences like a domineering rooster. It was only when a lesson of this +sort was suddenly disturbed by some sally from a scapegrace of a pupil +that Pievakin would fly into a passion and then he would take to jumping +about, tearing at his own hair, and groaning as though with physical +pain. + +Pavel was perhaps the most ardent friend Alexandre Alexandrovich had in +all Miroslav. The young prince was in a singular position at the +gymnasium. Somehow things were always done in a way to make one remember +that he was Prince Boulatoff and a nephew of the governor of the +province of which Miroslav was the capital. He was the only boy who +usually came to school in a carriage and it seemed as though the +imposing vehicle had the effect of isolating him from the other boys. As +to his teachers, they took a peculiar tone with him--one of +ill-concealed reverence which would betray itself with all the more +emphasis when they tried to take him to task. The upshot was that most +of the other pupils, including the only other prince in the class (who +was also the wildest boy in it) kept out of Pavel's way, while those +who did not treated him with a servility that was even more offensive to +him than the aloofness of the rest. He had made several attempts to get +on terms of good fellowship with two or three of the boys he liked, but +his own effort to laugh and frolic with them had jarred on him like a +false note. He had finally settled down to a manner of haughty +reticence, keeping an observant eye on his classmates and finding a +peculiar pleasure in these silent observations. + +The only two teachers who did not indulge him were Pievakin and the +teacher of mathematics, a cheerful hunchback with a pale distended face +lit by a pair of comical blue eyes, whom the boys had dubbed "truncated +cone." The teacher of mathematics made Pavel feel his exceptional +position by treating him with special harshness. As to Pievakin, who had +begun by addressing the aristocratic youth with an embarrassed air, he +had gradually adopted toward him a manner of fatherly superiority that +developed in the boy's heart a filial attachment for the old pedagogue. +In order to increase his income Pavel had made him his private tutor, +although he stood high in his class and needed no such assistance, and +this summer, when the old man complained of rheumatism, he had caused +his mother to invite him to the German resort. + + * * * * * + +When they reached their hotel the countess unburdened herself to her +son's tutor of certain memories which interested her now far more than +did her unexpected rupture with the Polish woman. She described a court +ball at St. Petersburg at which the present Czar, then still Czarowitz, +conversed for five minutes with her. She treated the gymnasium teacher +partly as she would her priest, partly as if he were her butler, and +now, in her burst of reminiscence, she overhauled her past to him with +the whole-hearted, childlike abandon which is characteristic of her race +and which put the humble old teacher ill at ease. "He told me to take +good care of my 'pretty eyes and golden eyebrows,'" she said. "And yet +it was for these very eyebrows that Pavel's father disliked me." + +She had been the pet daughter of a wealthy nobleman, high in the service +of the ministry for foreign affairs, but Pavel's father, and her living +husband, from whom she was now practically separated, had almost +convinced her that to be disliked was her just share in life. Her +parents and sisters were dead. She had a little boy by her second +marriage, but she was still in love with the shadow of her first +husband, and the son he had left her was the one passion of her life. +Having spent her youth in the two foreign countries to which her +father's diplomatic career took the family, she deprecated, in a dim +unformulated way, many of the things that surrounded her in her native +land. She was unable to reconcile her luminous image of the Emperor with +the mediaeval cruelties that were being perpetrated by his order. She was +at a loss to understand how such a gentle-hearted man could send to the +gallows or to the living graves of Siberia people like the Polish +patriots. The compulsory religion of the Orthodox Russian Church, too, +with its iron-clad organisation and grotesque uniforms, impressed her as +a kind of spiritual gendarmerie. Yet she accepted it all as part of that +panorama of things which whispered the magic word, "Russia." And now the +sight of the Czar had rekindled memories of her better days and stirred +in her a submissive sense of her cheerless fate. + +Pavel was meanwhile putting the case of the Polish woman to Onufri, one +of the two servants who accompanied them in their present travels--a +retired hussar with a formidable moustache in front of a pinched +hollow-cheeked face. + +"Her highness, your mother, is good as an angel, sir," was Onufri's +verdict. + +"And you are stupid as a cork," Pavel snarled. His sense of the +desecration to which the person of his Czar was being subjected by +mingling with people like the widow of a hanged rebel rankled in his +heart. He worked himself up to a state of mind in which the very +similarity in physical appearance between the untitled people with whom +the Czar and born aristocrats like himself and his mother were compelled +to mingle at a place like this resort struck him as an impertinence on +the part of the untitled people. + +Later when he lay between two German featherbeds and Onufri brought him +his book and a candle he asked him to take a seat by his bedside. + +"Why are you such a deuced fool, Onufri?" + +"If I am it is God's business, not mine, nor your highness'." + +"Look here, Onufri. How would you like to have all common people black +like those darkies?" + +The servant spat out in horror and made the sign of the cross. + +"For shame, sir. What harm have the common people done you that you +should wish them a horrid thing like that? And where does your highness +get these cruel thoughts? Surely not from your mother. For shame, sir." + +"Idiot that you are, it's mere fancy, just for fun. There ought to be +some difference between noble people and common. There is in some +countries, you know." He told him about castes, the slave trade in +America and passed to the days of chivalry, his favourite topic, until +the retired hussar's head sank and a mighty snore rang out of his bushy +moustache. Pavel flew into a passion. + +"Ass!" he shouted, getting half out of bed and shaking him fiercely. +"Why don't I fall asleep when you tell me stories?" + +Onufri started and fell to rubbing one eye, while with his other eye he +looked about him, as though he had slept a week. The stories he often +told young Boulatoff mostly related to the days of serfdom, which had +been abolished when Pavel was a boy of five. Onufri's mother had been +flogged to death in the presence of her master, Pavel's grandfather, and +the former hussar would tell the story with a solemnity that reflected +his veneration for the "good old times" rather than grief over the fate +of his mother. + +That night Pavel dreamed of a pond full of calves that were splashing +about and laughing in the water. He carried them all home and on his way +there they were transformed into one pair, and the two calves walked +about and talked just like Onufri and the transformation was no +transformation at all, the calves being real calves and negroes at the +same time. When he awoke, in the morning, and it came over him that the +dream had had something to do with Onufri, he was seized with a feeling +of self-disgust. He thought of the Polish woman and his treatment of +her, and this, too, appeared in a new light to him. + +Two or three hours later, when the countess returned from her morning +walk Pavel, dressed to go out, grave and mysterious, solemnly handed her +a sealed note from himself. + +"Don't open it until I have left," he said. "I am going out for a +stroll." + +"What you said yesterday about my being hard-hearted and incapable of +sympathy," the letter read, "left a deep impression on me. I thought of +it almost the first thing this morning as I opened my eyes, and it kept +me thinking all the morning. I looked deep into my soul, I overhauled my +whole ego. I turned it inside out, and--well, I must say I have come to +the conclusion that what you said was not devoid of foundation. Not that +I am prepared to imagine ourselves as having anything to do with a woman +whose family is a family of rebels and who has the audacity to pass our +emperor without bowing; but she is a human being, too, and her +sufferings should have aroused some commiseration in me. I envy you, +mother. Compared to you I really am a hard-hearted, unfeeling brute, and +it makes me very, very unhappy to think of it. My heart is so full at +this moment that I am at a loss to give expression to what I feel, but +you will understand me, darling little mother mine. I do _not_ want to +be hard and cruel, and I want you to help me. + + "Your struggling son, + "PAVEL." + +When Anna Nicolayevna laid down the letter her large meek grey eyes +first grew red and then filled with tears. She sat with her long slim +arms loosely folded on a davenport, weeping and smiling at once. There +was much charm in her smile, but, barring it and her mass of fine auburn +hair, she was certainly not good looking. She was small, ungainly, +flat-chested, with a large thin-lipped mouth and, in spite of her +beautiful gowns, with a general effect of rustiness. + +When Pavel and his mother met at dinner he felt so embarrassed he could +not bring himself to look her in the face. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE WHITE TERROR. + + +Miroslav was trisected longitudinally by a clear, cheerful river and by +Kasimir Street, its principal thoroughfare, which contained most of its +public buildings and best shops. The middle one of the three sections +thus formed was the home of the higher nobility and the official class; +the district across the bridge from here was inhabited by Christian +burghers and workmen, with here and there a clay hovel, the home of a +peasant family, gleaming white in the distant outskirts; while the hilly +quarter beyond Kasimir Street was the seat of Jewish industry and Jewish +poverty, part of this neighbourhood being occupied by the market places +and "the Paradise," as the slums of the town were called ironically. The +governor's house, which faced Governor's Prospect--a small square with a +fountain in the centre--and Anna Nicolayevna's were the two most +imposing buildings in Miroslav. + +The countess' residence was the only structure in town that had a +colonnaded front. The common people called it the Palace and the section +of Kasimir Street it faced the Pillars. The sidewalk opposite was the +favourite promenade of the younger generation, and every afternoon, in +auspicious weather, it glittered with the uniforms of army officers and +gymnasium boys. The Palace was built by her grandfather in the closing +days of the previous century. It abutted on a long narrow lane formed +on one side by Anna Nicolayevna's garden and leading to Theatre Square, +where stood the playhouse and the Nobles' Club. When the white rigidity +of these buildings was relieved by the grass of its lawns and the +foliage of its trees the spot was the joy of the town. + +During the winter of the year following the countess' sojourn at the +German watering place, Miroslav was stirred by a sensation, the central +figure of which was Pavel's tutor, the instructor of geography and +history in the local gymnasium, Alexandre Alexandrovich Pievakin. Pavel +was then in the graduating class. + +Besides being connected with the male gymnasium Pievakin taught at the +female high school of Miroslav. The town was fond of him and he was fond +of the town and upon the whole he was contented. One of the things that +galled him was the fact that his superior, the newly appointed director +of the school, was his inferior both in years and in civil rank. +Pievakin was a "councillor of state," while Novikoff, the head of the +male gymnasium, was only a "collegiate assessor." Novikoff was a +painstaking, narrow-minded functionary, superciliously proud of his +office and slavishly loyal to the letter of the law. He was a slender, +dark-complexioned man of forty, but he tried to look much older and +heavier. He copied the Czar's side-whiskers, walked like a corpulent +grandee, perpetually pulling at his waistcoat as though he were burdened +by a voluminous paunch, and interlarded his speech with aphorisms from +the Latin Grammar. + +One day as the director strutted ponderously along one of the two +corridors, the word "parliament" fell on his ear. It was Pievakin's +voice. The old man was explaining something to his class with great +ardour. Novikoff paused, his lordly walk congealing into the picture of +dignified attention. The next minute, however, his grandeur melted away. +His face expressed unfeigned horror. Pievakin was drawing an effusive +parallel between absolute monarchies and limited. This was distinctly in +violation of the Circular of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment +enjoining teachers of geography, in cases of this kind, to adhere +strictly to the bare terminology of the approved text-book without +venturing into anything like an elucidation. Not that Pievakin was +betraying any partiality for limited monarchies. Indeed, to him the +distinction between the two forms of government was neither of more nor +of less interest than the difference between a steppe and a prairie or a +simoon and a hurricane. It appealed to him because it was geography, and +in his ecstasy over the lesson all thought of the Ministry and its +Circulars had escaped his mind. + +That afternoon he was summoned to the director's office on the floor +below. + +Novikoff was at his large, flat-topped desk, studiously absorbed in some +papers. He silently motioned the teacher of geography to a seat, and +went on with his feigned work. After a lapse of some minutes he +straightened up, played a few scales upon the brass buttons of his +uniform, and said: + +"It pains me to have to say it, Alexandre Alexandrovich, but these are +queer times and the passions of youth should be moderated, held in +check, suppressed, not aroused. The imagination of one's pupils is not +to be trifled with, Alexandre Alexandrovich." + +He paused mournfully. The little old man, who had not the least idea +what he was driving at, waited in consternation. The room was +overheated, and the pause had an overpowering effect on him. He felt on +the verge of fainting. + +"The point is," Novikoff resumed, with a sudden spurt in his voice, +"that in your class work you sometimes suffer yourself to say things +that cannot but be regarded as dangerous. Dangerous particularly in view +of the evil influences at work among the young of our generation; in +view of the very sad fact that college students will disguise themselves +as peasants----" + +"What do you mean, sir?" Pievakin burst out, reddening violently. "How +dare you liken me to those fellows? I was serving the Czar while you +were still a whippersnapper. I'm a councillor of state, sir. How dare +you make these insinuations?" + +"I expected as much," Novikoff answered, nervously polishing his +buttons. "Defying one's superior is of a piece with the views you're +trying to instill into the minds of your scholars." + +"What is of a piece with what? Speak out, sir," Pievakin shrieked. + +"Bridle your temper, sir. I can't allow that." + +"Then tell me what it's all about," the teacher of history and geography +said in a queer, half-beseeching, half-threatening voice. + +"Well, this morning you were expatiating upon the blessings of a +constitutional government. Yes, sir. There are no spies to eavesdrop on +one in this building, but it seems you never speak so loud nor with so +much gusto as when you get to the subject of constitutions and +parliaments and things of that kind." + +"It isn't true. I merely said a word or two on the various forms of +government. It's practically all in Smirnoff's Geography." + +"'Practically'! It's against the law. I am very sorry, but it becomes my +duty to report it to the curator." + +Here Pievakin, losing control of himself, shouted "Spy!" and +"Scoundrel!" and darted out of the room. + +This happened at a time when the "peasantist" movement, the peaceful, +unresisting stage in the history of what is commonly known as Nihilism, +was at its height. The educated young generation was in an ecstasy of +altruism. It was the period of "going to the people," when hundreds of +well-bred men and women, children of the nobility, would don peasant +garb and go to share the life of the tillers of the soil, teaching them +to read, talking to them of universal love, liberty and equality. The +government punished this "going to the people" with Asiatic severity. +Russia has no capital punishment for the slaying of common mortals, the +average penalty for murder being about ten years of penal servitude in +Siberia; and this penalty the courts were often ordered to impose on +absolutely peaceable missionaries, on university students who +practically did the same kind of work as that pursued by the "university +settlements" in English-speaking countries. There were about one +thousand of these propagandists in the political prisons of the empire, +and their number was growing. They were kept in solitary confinement in +cold, damp cells. Scores of them went insane or died of consumption, +scurvy or suicide before their cases came up for trial. + + * * * * * + +Pievakin's house was searched by gendarmes, but no "underground" +literature was discovered there. He was not arrested, but spies shadowed +his movements and about a month after the domiciliary visit he was +officially notified by the curator's office that he was to be +transferred to the four-year "progymnasium" of a small town a +considerable distance off. This implied that his work was to be +restricted to boys of fourteen and less in a town out of the way of +"dangerous tendencies." He grew thin and haggard and a certain look of +fright never left his eye. The other instructors at the gymnasium, all +except one, and many of his private acquaintance plainly shunned him. He +had become one of those people with whom one could not come in contact +without attracting the undesirable attention of the police. One of those +who were not afraid to be seen in his company was the "truncated cone." +"My crooked back is the only one that does not bend," the deformed man +would joke. The tacit philosophy of his attitude toward the world seemed +to be something like this: "You people won't consider me one of you. I +am only a hunchback, something like an elf, and you will take many an +unwelcome truth from me which you would resent in one like yourselves. +So let us proceed on this understanding." + +When Boulatoff heard that his favourite teacher was to be exiled to a +small town "to render him harmless," he was shocked. Alexandre +Alexandrovich Pievakin was the last man in the world he would have +suspected to be guilty of seditious agitation. His only idol at school +was thus shattered. Pievakin had not the courage to visit the countess' +house now, and Pavel, on his part, held aloof from him. The old man was +hateful to him, not only as a rebel, but also as an impostor and a +hypocrite. He felt duped. His blood rankled with disgust and resentment. +At the same time the situation did not seem quite clear to him. +Something puzzled him, although he could not have put his finger on it. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +PIEVAKIN PLEADS GUILTY. + + +A lesson in Latin was in progress. The teacher was a blond Czech. Pavel +looked at him intently, trying to follow the exercises, but he only +became the more aware of the foreigner's struggles with Russian and made +the discovery that his clumsy carriage, as he walked up and down the +room, was suggestive of a peasant woman trying to catch a chicken. His +thoughts passed to Pievakin and almost at the same instant a question +flashed into his brain: If Pievakin was unreliable politically, why, +then, was he getting off so easily? How was it that instead of being cut +off from the living world, instead of being thrown into a dungeon to +waste and perish, as was done with all fellows of that sort, he was +merely transferred to another school? + +The bell sounded. The Czech put his big flat record-book under his arm +and left the room. Most of the pupils went out soon after. The two long +corridors were bubbling with boys in blue, a-glitter with nickel-plated +buttons and silver galloon, some laughing over their experience with the +lesson just disposed of, others eagerly reviewing the one soon to be +recited. Pievakin passed along. The pupils bowed to him with curious +sympathetic looks, and he returned their salutes with an air of mixed +timidity and gratitude. Presently the teacher of mathematics emerged +from one of the glass doors, his deformity bulging through the blue +broadcloth of his uniform. + +"Alexandre Alexandrovich!" he shouted demonstratively, and catching up +with him he threw his arm around his waist. + +Pavel, who had been watching the scene, was about to return to his +class-room so as to avoid bowing to Pievakin, when, by a sudden impulse, +he saluted the two teachers, and advancing to meet them, with that +peculiar air of politeness which reminded his classmates of his equipage +and the colonnade in front of his mother's mansion, he accosted the +instructor of history and geography, turning pale as he did so: + +"May I speak to you, Alexandre Alexandrovich?" When the mathematician +had withdrawn, he inquired in a tone of pain and concern: "What has +happened, Alexandre Alexandrovich?" + +"Oh, I'm in trouble, prince," the old man faltered. He had never +addressed the youth by his title before, and there was a note of abject +supplication in his voice, as if the boy could help him. His face had a +pinched, cowed look. + +"But, Alexandre Alexandrovich, it's a terrible thing they are accusing +you of. You've been so dear to me, Alexandre Alexandrovich. I want to +know all. I cannot rest, Alexandre Alexandrovich." + +"The story is easily told. A misfortune has befallen me. While touching +upon the constitutional form of government, I was somewhat carried away. +That I don't deny. I know it was wrong of me, but I assure you, prince, +I meant no harm." + +It sounded as though he were a pleading pupil and the boy before him his +teacher. + +Pavel was touched and perplexed. + +"But that's in the text-book, Alexandre Alexandrovich." + +"To be sure it is. Only the text-book merely uses the term without +explaining it, while I, absent-mindedly, proceeded to do so, which is +against the rules, and, as ill luck would have it, I warmed up a bit. +When I was first asked about it I was not aware of having done any +wrong. I was so shocked, in fact, I lost my temper. That was the worst +of it. I am a ruined man, prince. Thirty-six years have I served the +Czar and there is not a blemish on my record." + +"But why should you call yourself a ruined man, Alexandre +Alexandrovich," Pavel said impetuously. "I don't see why it should be +too late to straighten it all out. I'm going to see my uncle. Or, better +still, my mother will see him. We can't let it go that way. We should +all be a lot of scoundrels if we did. I'm going to tell him so." + +"Do it, prince, if you can," the old man said with shamefaced eagerness. +"I shall never forget it." + + * * * * * + +When Pavel came home he found his mother's sleigh in front of the main +entrance, her coachman in dazzling attire, waiting with pompous +stolidity. When the liveried porter threw the door open to him and he +entered the vestibule he saw coming down the immense staircase his +mother and his five-year-old half-brother, Kostia, dressed for their +afternoon drive, Anna Nicolayevna in her furs and the little fellow in +the costume of a Caucasian horseman, which became his grave little face +charmingly. Following at some distance, with a smile of admiration, half +servile, half sincere, on her fresh German face, was Kostia's governess. +She was not dressed for a drive. She was merely going to see her charge +off. + +"Mother, I am afraid I shall have to detain you," Pavel said, solemnly. +"I wish to speak to you about Alexandre Alexandrovich." + +"Won't it keep?" she asked, with a facetious gesture. + +"Don't make fun of it, mother," he reproached her. "It's a serious +matter. My head is in a whirl." + +Kostia was burning to show himself in public in his new Circassian cap +and when he saw his mother yield he screwed up his face for a cry, but +he forthwith straightened it out again. He scarcely ever cried in +Pavel's presence for fear of being called "damsel" by him--an +appellation he dreaded more than being locked up alone in the +schoolroom. + +They went into Anna Nicolayevna's favorite sitting-room, a square +chamber furnished and decorated in tan, in no particular style, but with +an eye to the combined suggestions of old-time solidity and latter-day +elegance. It was the embodiment of rest and silence, an effect to which +two life-sized bronze statues--a Diana and a Venus de Medici--and the +drowsy ticking of an ancient clock contributed not a little. It was +known as the English room because its former furnishings had been +modelled after London standards. + +Pavel painted Pievakin as a penitent, broken spirit till Anna +Nicolayevna's eyes grew red. + +"Still, maybe he does hold dangerous views?" she asked. + +"Dangerous nothing! It's all nonsense. He's more loyal than Novikoff +anyhow, for Novikoff is a soulless, attitudinising nincompoop, while he +is the kindliest, most conscientious, most soulful man in the world." + +"Unfortunately all this has nothing to do with loyalty," she said, +sadly. "This is a very queer world, Pasha. It's just like those +wretches who would do away with czars to be warm-hearted and good to +everybody. They don't believe there ought to be rich and poor, either. +When you come across a man of this sort keep away from him, Pasha." + +"But what has that got to do with Pievakin?" he shouted. "The very sight +of a Nihilist would be enough to frighten him out of his wits. I want +you to tell it all to uncle, _mamman_. Give him no peace until he +promises you to write to the curator about the poor old man." + +The governor of Miroslav was a Boulatoff, being a cousin of Pavel's +deceased father; but he was also related to the young man by marriage to +his mother's sister, who had died less than a year ago. Anna Nicolayevna +promised to see her brother-in-law the next morning, but Pavel would not +wait. He pleaded, he charged her with heartlessness, tapping the thick +rug with his foot and shaking all over as he spoke, until she agreed to +go at once. + +While she was gone Pavel and Kostia went into the ball room and played +"hunter and partridge," a game of the gymnasium boys' inventing. They +had not been many minutes at it before Pavel had forgotten all about the +errand on which he had despatched his mother and the vast ball room +echoed with his voluminous laughter. His great pleasure was to tease +Kostia until the little boy's mouth would begin to twitch, and then to +shake his finger at him and say: "Better not cry, Kostia, or you know +what I am going to call you." Whereupon Kostia would make a desperate +effort to look nonchalantly grave and Pavel would burst into a new roar +of merriment. + +Anna Nicolayevna came back converted to a rigorous point of view, and +although her son had no difficulty in convincing her once again that +Pievakin deserved mercy, he made up his mind to see his uncle himself, +and he did so the very next morning. + +Governor Boulatoff was a massive, worn, blinking old satrap, shrewd, +tight-fisted, and, what was quite unusual for a man of his class, with +an eye to business. His nose was extremely broad and fleshy, his hair +was elaborately dressed, and altogether he looked like a successful old +comedian. Bribe-giving was as universal in Miroslav as tipping was in +its leading cafe. One could not turn round without showing "gratitude." +The wheels of government would not move in the desired direction unless +they were greased, the price of this "grease" or "gratitude" varying all +the way from a ten-copeck piece to ten or fifteen thousand rubles. +Governor Boulatoff, who had come to Miroslav a ruined man, was now the +largest land-owner in the province. Whenever he was in need of ready +cash he would galvanize into a new lease of life some defunct piece of +anti-Jewish legislation. This was known among the other officials as +"pressing the spring"--the spring of the Jewish pocketbook, that is, the +invariable effect of the proceeding being the appearance of a delegation +with a snug piece of Jewish "gratitude." He was continually sneering at +the powers behind the throne, and mildly striving for recognition; yet +so comfortable did he feel in this city of gardens, card-playing and +"gratitude," from which "the Czar was too far off and God too high up," +that he was in mortal fear lest the promotion which he coveted should +come in the form of a transfer to a more important province. + +Pavel found him in his imposing "den." The old potentate was in his +morning gown, freshly bathed, shaved and coiffured and smelling of +pomade and cigarette smoke. + +"Well, my little statesman," he greeted him in French. "What brings you +so early this morning? Aren't you going to school at all?" He called him +statesman because of his ambition to follow in the footsteps of his +diplomatic grandfather. + +"I shall stay away from the first three lessons," Pavel answered. "I +cannot rest, uncle. I want to speak to you about that unfortunate man." + +The governor was very fond of Pavel, but he persisted in treating him as +a boy, and the only serious talk young Boulatoff got out of him +regarding Pievakin was an exhortation to give "men of that sort a wide +berth." + +"But, uncle----" + +"Don't argue," the governor interrupted him, blinking as he spoke. "This +is not the kind of thing for a boy of your station to get mixed up in." + +"Oh, it's enough to drive one crazy. The poor man is sincerely +repentant, uncle. He'll never do it again, uncle." + +"I see you're quite excited over it. Just the kind of effect fellows of +that stamp will have on the mind of a boy. This is just where the danger +comes in. Don't forget your name, Pasha. Come, throw it all out of your +clever little head. There's a good boy." + +"Uncle darling, he'll never do it again. Let him stay where he is." + +"You're a foolish boy. Whether he'll do it again or no, his very +presence in this town would be a source of danger. Whoever sets his eyes +on him will say to himself: 'Here is the man who once talked of the way +people live under a constitution.' So you see he'll be a reminder of +unlawful ideas. We have no use for fellows of this sort. They are like +living poison. Do you see the point? Let your teacher thank his stars +the case was not put in the hands of the gendarmes entirely, or he +would be sent to a colder place." + +All this the governor said in the playful manner of one conversing with +a child and, by way of clinching the matter, he explained that he had +nothing to do with the case and that it was under the jurisdiction of +the "curator of educational district." + +Pavel was in despair and his being treated as a boy threw him into a +rage, but he held himself in check for Pievakin's sake. + +"Oh, the curator will do anything you ask of him, uncle," he said in a +tone of entreaty and resentment at once. + +"You don't want your uncle to write letters begging for a fellow who was +foolish enough to get mixed up in such an affair as that, do you? I used +to think you really cared for your uncle." + +Pavel contracted his forehead and put out his chin sullenly. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE "DEMONSTRATION." + + +At the hour of Pievakin's departure the Miroslav railway station was +crowded with gymnasium pupils of both sexes, but Pavel was not among +them. He had not been informed that such a gathering was in +contemplation at all. + +Alexandre Alexandrovich, a satchel slung across his breast, wan and +haggard, but flushed with excitement, was bustling about in a listless, +mechanical way. He was accompanied by his large family and the teacher +of mathematics. A number of gendarmes, stalwart, bewhiskered, +elaborately formidable, were pacing up and down the large waiting room. +The gendarmerie is the political police of the Czar. It forms a special +military organisation quite distinct from the police proper. A detail of +such gendarmes, proportionate to the importance of the place, is to be +found in every railroad station of the country. On this occasion, +however, the presence of the gendarmes seemed to have some special +bearing upon the nature of the scene. They were all big strapping +fellows. Their jingling spurs, red epaulets and icy silence belonged to +the same category of things as the terrible political prisons of +Kharkoff and St. Petersburg; as the clinking of convict-chains, as the +frozen wastes of Siberia. + +All at once most of the bespurred men disappeared. After an absence of +two or three minutes they came back, considerably re-enforced. + +"All gymnasium pupils, ladies and gentlemen, will please leave the +station," they called out. + +About one-half of the throng struck out for the doors as if the place +were on fire. Some fifteen or twenty pupils stood still, frowning upon +the guardians of the Czar's safety, in timid defiance. The rest, a crowd +of about two hundred, made a lunge in the direction of the corner where +Alexandre Alexandrovich and his family were pottering about some light +baggage, when three lusty gendarmes planted themselves in front of the +little old man. + +"Go home, ladies and gentlemen, go home!" Pievakin besought his friends, +waving his hands and stamping his feet desperately. + +"Have we no right to say good-bye to our own teacher?" one boy ventured. + +"Not allowed!" a gendarme answered, sternly. "Get out, get out!" + +The crowd surged back; but at this point a young feminine voice, +sonorous with indignation and distress, rose above the din of the +scramble: + +"Good heavens! Can it be that we shall leave without saying good-bye to +our dear teacher? All they say of him is a lie, a malicious lie. They're +a lot of knaves, and he is the best man in the world. Let them arrest us +if they will, let them kill us. It would be a shame if we went away like +traitors to our dear teacher." + +The rest was lost in a hubbub of shouts and shrieks. In their effort to +get at the speaker, who was shielded by the other pupils, the gendarmes +were beating young women with their sheathed swords or pulling them by +the hair. With the exception of a few who had skulked out through back +doors, the young people now all stood their ground, ready to fight. + +"Arrest us all!" they yelled. "We all say the same thing." + +"Yes, Alexandre Alexandrovich is the best man in the world. There!" + +"A better man than Novikoff!" + +"Novikoff is a hypocrite and a rogue!" + +In the commotion the gendarmes lost sight of the girl they were about to +arrest. She could not have left the room, but then it was not easy to +tell her from any of the other girls. The gendarmes had seen her at a +distance, and all they could say was that she was blonde. In their +eagerness to pick her out, they were rudely scanning every young woman +in the waiting-room. Had she been arrested it would have gone hard with +her. As good luck would have it, however, Major Safonoff, the officer in +command of the railroad gendarmes, was the brother of one of the girls +present. He was a plump, good-natured bachelor, and his devotion to his +sister, who had been under his care since she was a year old, was a +source of jests and anecdotes. When it occurred to him that the +conflict, which was beginning to look like a serious affair, was likely +to cause trouble to his sister, he hastened to make light of it. + +"Go home, ladies and gentlemen," he said, in a remonstrative amicable +voice, taking the matter in his own hands. + +His friendly tone and his smiling fat face, added to the tacit +understanding that the girl who had made the speech was not to be +persecuted, acted as a balm; but the flattering notion that the +gendarmes had surrendered kindled new fighting blood. + +"Your men have hit ladies. They've no right to hit anybody. They're a +lot of brutes. All we wanted was to say good-bye to Alexandre +Alexandrovich." + +"But that's impossible, so what's the use getting excited, gentlemen? +Better go home." + +The pupils obeyed, in a leisurely way, as though leaving of their own +accord. + + * * * * * + +During the following few weeks this "victory" over the gendarmes was the +great topic of discussion. The personality of the girl who "started the +demonstration" was emblazoned with the halo of heroism. The curious part +of it was that only a minority of those who had participated in the +scene had any idea who she was. When the crowd at the railroad station +had dispersed, the handful that knew her whispered her name to some of +those who did not, so that the number of pupils in the secret was by now +comparatively large, but it was a "revolutionary" secret, so it was +guarded most zealously against unreliable pupils as well as against the +authorities. + +One of the page-proofs of the _Miroslav Messenger_ that were sent to the +censor at midnight contained the following paragraph: + +"Alexandre Alexandrovich Pievakin, for many years instructor of History +and Geography at our male gymnasium, left for his new place of service +yesterday afternoon. A large number of gymnasium pupils were at the +railway station." + +The entire paragraph was stricken out, so that the _Messenger_ next +morning contained not the remotest reference to the departure of the old +teacher. + +When Pasha heard what had happened at the railway station his heart +sank. + +"I must speak to you, mother," he gasped out, bursting into her room, +after school time. When her companion, a dried-up little Frenchwoman +with a thriving streak of black moustache, had withdrawn, he said: +"Mother, I am a miserable egoist and a scoundrel." He told her the story +of Pievakin's departure. His dear old teacher was in trouble, the victim +of a cruel injustice, yet he, Pasha, had not even thought of going to +see him off. Everybody had been there except him. But what tantalised +him more than anything else was the fact that a girl was the only person +who had taken a brave noble stand in the old man's behalf. This hurt his +knightly sense of honour cruelly. He should have been on the scene and +done exactly what that girl had done. + +"I'm an egoist and a coward, _mamman_. I hate myself. Oh, I do hate +myself!" + +Anna Nicolayevna's eyes grew red. She had an impulse to fold him in her +arms and to offer to take him to Pievakin's new place so that he might +protest his sympathy and affection for the old man, but her instinct +told her that this would be improper. Oh, there were so many things that +made a strong appeal to one's better feelings which were considered +improper. So she emitted a sigh of resignation and said nothing. + +Pavel was pacing the floor so vehemently that he came near running into +and knocking down the life-sized Diana. He walked with rapid heavy steps +until his brain grew dizzy and his despair was dulled as from the effect +of drink. Suddenly the situation rushed back upon him. + +"I tell you what, mother, he's too good for them," he said, stopping in +front of her. "He is better than uncle, anyhow." + +"Hush, you mustn't say that." + +"The devil I mustn't. It's true." + +"You are impossible, Pasha. Can't you calm down?" + +"I'll tell you calmly, then: uncle is a bribe-taker and a heartless +egoist. There." + +"Dear me," she said, in consternation. + +"But you know he is, mother. And do you call that loyalty to the Czar? +Pievakin is pure as an infant. If the Czar knew the real character of +both, he would know that the poor man could give uncle points in +loyalty." + +A few days after this conversation the governor dined at "The Palace," +as Countess Varoff's residence was known among the common people of +Miroslav. Pavel refused to leave his room. When Anna Nicolayevna pleaded +his uncle's affection for him, he said: + +"His affection be hanged. Who wants the affection of a bribe-taker who +will let an honest man perish? Look here, mother, you have no business +to tell him I have a headache. I want him to know the truth. Tell him +it's men like himself, bribe-takers, cowards, who spread sedition, not +men like Pievakin. 'Living poison,' indeed! Tell him he is a lump of +living poison himself. Oh, I hate him, I do hate him." + +His brain was working feverishly. The image of Pievakin with three +gendarmes between him and a crowd of pupils haunted him. Why could he +not be pardoned? Was there no mercy in this world? His sense of the +cruelty of the thing and of his own helplessness seized him as with a +violent clutch again and again. + +Once, as he was reviewing the situation for the thousandth time, a voice +in him exclaimed: "Pardoned? What was Pievakin to be pardoned for? What +had he done? Why should it be wrong to dwell on the vital features of +parliamentary government? Such governments existed, didn't they? And if +they did, then why should one be forbidden to explain their essence?" +For the first time did his attention fix itself on this point, and +questions came crowding upon him. Where was the sense of having such +terms as "limited monarchy" in the text-book at all, if the pupils were +not to be told what this meant? Above all, why should the government be +afraid of such explanations? There seemed to be something cowardly, +sneaking, about all this which jarred on Pavel's sense of the knightly +magnificence of the Czar and left him with a bad taste in the mouth, as +the phrase is. + +Alexandre Alexandrovich, then, had done no wrong, and yet he had been +banished as "living poison," treated by everybody as a criminal, until +he came to believe himself one. Why, of course he was better than +Novikoff. Novikoff was a self-seeking, posing wretch, and all the other +teachers were cringing and crouching before him; and these insects +turned their backs upon Alexandre Alexandrovich! Corruption passed for +loyalty, and a really good man was persecuted, hunted down like a wild +beast, trampled upon. "Trampled upon, trampled upon, trampled upon!" +Pavel whispered audibly, stamping his foot and gnashing his teeth as he +did so. + +The only gleam of light was the veiled figure of that gymnasium girl. +She alone had had sympathy and courage enough to raise her voice for the +poor man. "Why, she is a perfect heroine," he said in his aching heart. + +At the gymnasium he felt his loneliness more keenly than ever. Wherever +he saw a cluster of boys, he felt sure they were whispering about the +gendarmes and the girl who had made the "speech" at the railroad +station. His pride was gone. He now saw himself an outcast, shut out of +the most important things life contained. + +The leader of the "serious-minded" boys in Pavel's class was an underfed +Jewish youth, with an anaemic chalky face and a cold intelligent look, +named Elkin. To Pavel he had always been repugnant. Since Pievakin's +departure, however, the aristocratic boy had looked at his classmates in +a new light, and Elkin now even inspired him with respect. + +"Who is the girl that made that speech at the station?" he asked simply. +The two had scarcely ever spoken before. + +Elkin gave Boulatoff a stare of freezing irony, as who should say: "What +do you think of the assurance of this man?" and then, dropping his eyes, +he asked: + +"What girl?" When he spoke his lips assumed the form of two obtuse +angles, exposing to view a glistening lozenge of white teeth. + +"Look here, Elkin, I want to know who that girl is and all about the +whole affair, and if you think I ought not to know it because--well, +because I am a Boulatoff and my uncle is the governor, I can assure you +that if I had been there I should have acted as she did. What's more, I +hate myself for not having been there." + +"I don't know what you're talking about," replied Elkin. "As to your +hating yourself, that's your own affair." + +"Well, however I may feel toward myself, I certainly have nothing but +contempt for a man like you," Pasha snapped back, paling. "But if you +think you can keep it from me, you're mistaken." + +Elkin sized him up with a look full of venom, as he said: + +"Pitiful wretch! How are you going to find it out? Through the political +spies?" + +Pavel turned red. It was with a great effort that he kept himself from +striking Elkin. After a pause he said: + +"Now, I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that you are a knave." + +"Besides," said Elkin, as though finishing an interrupted remark, "most +of the gymnasium girls who saw Alexandre Alexandrovich off are daughters +of poor, humble people, so of what interest would it have been to a man +in your position?" + +Boulatoff stood still for a few moments, and then said under his breath: + +"Well, you're a fool as well as a knave," and turned away. + +The heroine of the demonstration was hateful to him now. She and Elkin +seemed to stand at the head of the untitled classes all arrayed against +him. He retired into himself deeper than ever. He abhorred her because +she had done the right thing, and each time his sympathy for Pievakin +welled up he hated himself for not having been at the station, and her +for having been there. He sought relief in charging Elkin with +cowardice. "What did he do there?" he would say to himself. "To think of +a lot of fellows running away when they are told they can't say good-bye +to their martyred teacher, and a girl being the only one who has courage +enough to act properly. And now that she has done it this coward has the +face to give himself airs, as if he were entitled to credit for her +courage. If I had been there I should not have run away as Elkin and his +crew did." + +This placed Elkin and his followers on one side of the line and Pavel +and the girl on the other. So what right had that coward of a Jew to +place himself between her and him? + + * * * * * + +Toward spring, some two months after the old teacher's departure, and +when the incident was beginning to grow dim in the public mind, the +sensation was suddenly revived and greatly intensified by an +extraordinary piece of news that came from the town to which Pievakin +had been transferred: The Third Section of His Majesty's Own Office--the +central political detective bureau of the empire--had taken up the case, +with the result that the action of the Department of Public Instruction +had been repudiated as dangerously inadequate. The idea of a man like +Pievakin participating in the education of children! Accordingly, the +poor old man was now under arrest, condemned to be transported to +Viatka, a thinly populated province in the remote north, where he was to +live under police surveillance, as a political exile strictly debarred +from teaching, even in private families. + +Pavel was stunned. He received the news as something elemental. He could +find fault with his uncle, but the government at St. Petersburg was a +sublime abstract force, bathed in the effulgence of the Czar's +personality. It was no more open to condemnation than a thunderstorm or +a turbulent sea. But the incident made an ineffaceable impression upon +him. It left him with the general feeling that there was something +inherently cruel in the world. And the picture of a pretty girl boldly +raising her voice for poor Pievakin in the teeth of formidable-looking +gendarmes and in the midst of a crowd of panic-stricken men remained +imbedded in his fancy as the emblem of brave pity. An importunate sense +of jealousy nagged him. He often caught himself dreaming of situations +in which he appeared in a role similar to the one she had played at the +railroad station. + +His perceptions and sensibilities took a novel trend. + +One day, for example, as he walked through Theatre Square, he paused to +watch an apple-faced ensign, evidently fresh from the military school, +lecture a middle-aged sergeant. The youthful officer sat on a bench, +swaggeringly leaning back, his new sword gleaming by his side, as he +questioned the soldier who stood at attention, the picture of +embarrassment and impotent rage. A young woman, probably the sergeant's +wife, sweetheart, or daughter, stood aside, looking on wretchedly. +Seated on a bench directly across the walk were two pretty gymnasium +girls. It was clear that the whole scene had been gotten up for their +sake, that the ensign had stopped the poor fellow, who was old enough to +be his father, and was now putting him through this ordeal for the sole +purpose of flaunting his authority before them. When the sergeant had +been allowed to go his way, but before he was out of hearing, Pavel +walked up to the ensign and said aloud: + +"I wish to tell you, sir, that you tormented that poor man merely to +show off." + +"Bravo!" said the two gymnasium girls, clapping their hands with all +their might; "bravo!" + +The ensign sprang to his feet, his apple-cheeks red as fire. "What do +you mean by interfering with an officer--in the performance of his +duty?" he faltered. He apparently knew that the young man before him was +a nephew of the governor. + +"Nonsense! You were not performing any duties. You were parading. That's +what you were doing." + +The two girls burst into a ringing laugh, whereupon the ensign stalked +off, mumbling something about having the gymnasium boy arrested. + +"Mother," he said, when he came home. "The world is divided into +tormentors and victims." + +Anna Nicolayevna gave a laugh that made her rusty face interesting. "And +what are you--a tormentor or a victim?" she asked. "At any rate you had +better throw these thoughts out of your mind. They lead to no good, +Pasha." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +PAVEL'S FIRST STEP. + + +When Pavel arrived in St. Petersburg, in the last days of July, his +recent tribulations seemed a thing of the faded past. The capital was a +fascinating setting for the great university which he was soon to enter +and in which he was bent upon drinking deep of the deepest mysteries of +wisdom. His "certificate of maturity"--his gymnasium diploma--was a +solemn proclamation of his passage from boyhood to manhood--a change +which seemed to assert itself in everything he did. He ate maturely, +talked maturely, walked maturely. He felt like a girl on the eve of her +wedding day. + +He had not been in the big city for six years, and so marked was the +distinction between it and the southern town from which he hailed, that +to his "mature" eyes it seemed as if they were seeing it for the first +time. The multitude of large lusty men, heavily bearded and wearing +blouses of flaming red; the pink buildings; the melodious hucksters; the +cherry-peddlars, with their boards piled with the succulent fruit on +their shoulders; the pitchy odor of the overheated streets; the soft, +sibilant affectations in the speech of the lower classes; the bustling +little ferry-boats on the Neva--all this, sanctified by the presence of +the university buildings across the gay river, made his heart throb with +a feeling as though Miroslav were a foreign town and he were treading +the soil of real Russia at last. + +He matriculated at the Section of Philology and History, St. Petersburg. +Before starting on his studies, however, he went off on a savage debauch +with some aristocratic young relatives. The debauch lasted a fortnight, +and cost his mother a small fortune. When he came to the university at +last, weary of himself and his relatives, he settled down to a winter of +hard work. But the life at the university disturbed his peace of mind. +He found the students divided into "crammers," "parquette-scrapers" and +"radicals." The last named seemed to be in the majority--a bustling, +whispering, preoccupied crowd with an effect of being the masters of the +situation. There was a vast difference between Elkin and his followers +and these people. Pavel knew that the university was the hotbed of the +secret movement, of which he was now tempted to know something. There +was no telling who of his present classmates might prove a candidate for +the gallows. The wide-awake, whispering, mysterious world about him +reminded him of the Miroslav girl and of his rebuff upon trying to +discover who she was. When he made an attempt to break through the magic +circle in which that world was enclosed his well-cared-for appearance +and high-born manner went against him. A feeling of isolation weighed on +his soul that was much harder to bear than his ostracism at the +gymnasium had been. Harder to bear, because the students who kept away +from him here struck him as his superiors, and because he had a humble +feeling as though it were natural that they should hold aloof from him. +And the image of that Miroslav girl seemed to float over these +whispering young men, at once luring and repulsing him. He often went +about with a lump in his throat. + +One day he met a girl named Sophia Perovskaya, the daughter of a former +governor of the Province of St. Petersburg and the granddaughter of a +celebrated cabinet minister. She was a strong-featured, boyish-looking +little creature, with grave blue eyes beneath a very high forehead. He +had known her when he was a child. There was something in her general +appearance now and in the few words she said to him which left a +peculiar impression on Pavel. As he thought of her later it dawned upon +him that she might belong to the same world as those preoccupied, +whispering fellow-students of his. He looked her up the same day. + +"I should like to get something to read, Sophia Lvovna," he said, +colouring. "Some of the proscribed things, I mean." Then he added, with +an embarrassed frown, "Something tells me you could get it for me. If I +am mistaken, you will have to excuse me." + +The governor's daughter fixed her blue eyes on him as she said, simply: + +"All right. I'll get you something." + +She lent him a volume of the "underground" magazine _Forward!_ and some +other prints. The tales of valour and martyrdom which he found in these +publications, added to the editorials they contained calling upon the +nobility to pay the debt they owed to the peasantry by sacrificing +themselves for their welfare, literally intoxicated him. + +"Dear Mother and Comrade," he wrote in a letter home, "I have come to +the conclusion that the so-called nobility to which I belong has never +done anything useful. For centuries and centuries and centuries we have +been living at the expense of those good, honest, overworked people, the +peasantry. It is enough to drive one to suicide. Yes, mamma darling, we +are a race of drones and robbers. The ignorant, unkempt moujiks that we +treat like beasts are in reality angels compared to us. There is +something in them--in their traditions and in the inherent purity of +their souls--which should inspire us with reverence. Yet they are +literally starved and three-fourths of their toil goes to maintain the +army and the titled classes." + +Further down in the same letter he said: "Every great writer in the +history of our literature has been in prison or exiled. Our noblest +thinker and critic, Chernyshevsky, is languishing in Siberia. Why? Why? +My hair stands erect when I think of these things." + +When it came to posting the letter, it dawned upon him that such +sentiments were not to be trusted to the mails, and, feeling himself a +conspirator, he committed the epistle to the flames. + +He was touched by the spirit of that peasant worship--the religion of +the "penitent nobility"--which was the spirit of the best unproscribed +literature of the day as well as of the "underground" movement. +Turgeneff owed the origin of his fame to the peasant portraits of his +_Notes of a Huntsman_. Nekrasoff, the leading poet of the period, and a +score of other writers were perpetually glorifying the peasant, going +into ecstasies over him, bewailing him. The peasant they drew was a +creature of flesh-and-blood reality, but shed over him was the golden +halo of idealism. The central doctrine of the movement was a theory that +the survival of the communistic element in the Russian village, was +destined to become the basis of the country's economic and political +salvation; that Russia would leap into an ideal social arrangement +without having to pass through capitalism; that her semi-barbaric +peasant, kindly and innocent as a dove and the martyr of centuries, +carried in his person the future glory, moral as well as material, of +his unhappy country. As to the living peasant, he had no more knowledge +of this adoration of himself (nor capacity to grasp the meaning of the +movement, if an attempt had been made to explain it to him) than a +squirrel has of the presence of a "q" in the spelling of its name. + + * * * * * + +Sophia disappeared from St. Petersburg, and Pavel found himself cut off +from the "underground" world once more. The prints she had left him only +served to excite his craving for others of the same character. The +preoccupied, mysterious air of the "radicals" at the university +tantalised him. He was in a veritable fever of envy, resentment, +intellectual and spiritual thirst. He subscribed liberally to the +various revolutionary funds that were continually being raised under the +guise of charity, and otherwise tried to manifest his sympathy with the +movement, all to no purpose. His contributions were accepted, but his +advances were repulsed. One day he approached a student whom he had once +given ten rubles "for a needy family"--a thin fellow with a very long +neck and the face of a chicken. + +"I should like to get something to read," he said, trying to copy the +tone of familiar simplicity which he had used with Sophia. "I have read +one number of _Forward!_ and another thing or two, but that's all I have +been able to get." + +"Pardon me," the chicken-face answered, colouring, "I really don't know +what you mean. Can't you get those books in the book-stores or in the +public library?" + +Pavel was left with an acute pang of self-pity. He felt like a pampered +child undergoing ill-treatment at the hands of strangers. His mother and +all his relatives thought so much of him, while these fellows, who +would deem it a privilege to talk to any of them, were treating him as +a nobody and a spy. The tears came to his eyes. But presently he +clenched his fists and said to himself, "I _will_ be admitted to their +set." + +In his fidget he happened to think of Pani Oginska. As the scene at the +German watering-place came back to him, he was seized with a desire to +efface the affront he had offered her. "How can I rest until I have seen +her and asked her pardon?" he said to himself. "If I were a real man and +not a mere phrase-monger I should start out on the journey at once. But, +of course, I won't do anything of the kind, and writing of such things +is impossible. I _am_ a phrase-maker. That's all I am." + +But he soliloquized himself into the reflection that Pani Oginska was +likely to know some of her imprisoned son's friends, if, indeed, she was +not in the "underground" world herself, and the very next morning found +him in a railway car, bound for the south. + + * * * * * + +Pani Oginska's estate was near the boundary line between the province to +which it belonged and the one whose capital was Miroslav, a considerable +distance from a railway station. Pavel covered that distance in a +post-sleigh drawn by a troika. His way lay in the steppe region. It was +a very cold forenoon in mid-winter. The horses' manes were covered with +frost; the postilion was bundled up so heavily that he looked like an +old woman. The sun shone out of a blue, unconcerned sky upon a waste of +eery whiteness. There were ridges of drifts and there were black patches +of bare ground, but the general perspective unfolded an unbroken plane +of snow, a level expanse stretching on either side of the smooth road, +seemingly endless and bottomless, destitute of any trace of life save +for an occasional inn by the roadside or the snow-bound hovel and +outhouses of a shepherd in the distance--a domain of silence and numb +monotony. That this desert of frozen sterility would four or five months +later, be transformed into a world of grass and birds seemed as +inconceivable as the sudden disappearance of the ocean. + +The last few versts were an eternity. Pavel's heart leaped with a +foretaste of the exciting interview. + +"Lively, my man," he pressed the postilion. "Can't your horses get a +move on them?" + +The postilion nodded his muffled head and set up a fierce yelp, for all +the world like a wolf giving chase; whereupon the animals, apparently +scared to death, broke into a desperate gallop, the scud flying, the +sleigh dashing along like an electric car in open country, its bell +ringing frostily. + +"That's better," Pavel shouted with a thrill of physical pleasure and +speaking with difficulty for the breakneck speed that seemed to fling +the breath out of his lungs. "That's better, my man. You shall get a +good tip. But where have you learned the trick?" + +The postilion gave a muffled grunt of appreciation and went on howling +with all his might. + +They passed through a small village. The chimneys of some of the white +clay hovels on either side of the road poured out clouds of sweetish, +nauseating smoke. Wood being scarce in these parts, the peasantry made +fuel of manure. + +At last the sleigh swung into the great front yard of Pani Oginska's +manor house. It was greeted by the curious eyes of half a dozen +servants. Pavel entered a warm vestibule with a painted floor, where he +found waiting to meet him Pani Oginska and an aged man with hair as +white as the snow without. He bowed politely and asked, in French, with +nervous timidity: + +"Do you remember me, Madame Oginska?" + +She screwed up her eyes as she scanned his flushed, frozen face. + +"Prince Boulatoff!" she said in a perplexed whisper. + +"I have come all the way from St. Petersburg to beg your pardon, Madame +Oginska," he fired out. "I acted like a brute on that occasion. I was an +idiotic boy. Forgive me." + +"Have you actually come all the way from St. Petersburg, to tell me +that?" she asked with a hearty peal of laughter. She introduced him to +the white-haired man, her father, who first made a bow full of +old-fashioned dignity and then gave Pavel's cold hand a doddering grasp. + +"So you have really come for that express purpose?" Pani Oginska +resumed, while a servant was relieving the newcomer of his fur-lined +coat, fur cap, heavy gloves, muffler and storm shoes. "A case of +compunction, I suppose?" + +Her father followed them as far as the open door of a vast, plainly +furnished parlour, and after looming on the threshold for a minute or +two, in an attitude of pained dignity, he bowed himself away. Pani +Oginska gently pressed the young man into a huge, rusty easy-chair, she +herself remaining in a standing posture, her mind apparently divided +between hospitality and an important errand upon which she seemed to +have been bent when he arrived. She wore a furred jacket, her head in a +grey shawl and her feet in heavy top-boots--a costume jarringly out of +accord with her pale, delicate, nunnish face. She made quite a new +impression on the young prince. + +"I was blind then," he began, when they were left alone. "My eyes were +closed." + +"Oh, you needn't go into detail," she rejoined with an amused look. "I +think I can guess how it has come about. You have caught the contagion, +haven't you?" + +"Why call it 'contagion?' It's the truth; it's justice. If I hadn't been +such a silly boy when I first had the pleasure of meeting you, I should +certainly not have acted the way I did." + +"A boy? And what are you now, pray? An old man with the weight of +experience on your shoulders?" she asked with motherly gaiety. "Well, +we'll talk it over later on, or, indeed, we'll find better things to +talk about; and meanwhile I want you to excuse me, prince, and make +yourself comfortable without me. You are hungry, of course?" + +"Not at all. I had luncheon at the station." + +"Well, you shall have some refreshments at any rate, and by and by I +shall be back. I am a rather busy woman, you see. I have to be my own +manager, and there are a thousand and one things to look after, and the +snow is rather deep"--pointing at her heavy boots. "Well, here are some +books and magazines. _Au revoir._" She made for the door, but faced +about again. "By the way, prince, does your mother know of this crazy +trip of yours?" + +"I confess she does not," he answered, feeling helplessly like a boy. +"Why?" + +"Why! Because she is the best woman in the world, and because it's too +bad you did anything so foolish without letting her know at least. By +the way, this is anything but a desirable place for a young man to +visit. Since my son got into trouble the police have tried to keep an +eye on us; but then the police are so stupid. Still, I am sorry you +didn't first consult your mother. If you boys would only let yourselves +be guided by your mothers you would be spared many a trouble." + +"Is that the prime object of life--to guard against harm to oneself?" +Pavel protested. + +She fixed him with a look of amusement, and then remarked sadly: "You +_have_ caught the contagion, poor thing. I'll write your mother about +it. Let her put a stop to it if it isn't too late." + +He took fire. "I don't know what you are hinting at, Madame Oginska," he +said. Asking her to introduce him to Nihilists seemed out of the +question. + +"I am hinting at those 'circles,' prince. You probably belong to one of +them; that's what I am hinting at. Don't you, now?" + +"I don't belong to any circles. Nor do I know what you mean, madame." + +"Well, well. You have come to ask me not to be offended with you, and +now it seems to be my turn to ask you not to be angry with me. Don't be +uneasy, prince. I shan't write to your mother. Indeed, she couldn't +afford to be in correspondence with me at all. However, if you really +aren't yet mixed up in those dreadful things"--there was a dubious +twinkle in her eye--"you had better keep out of them in the future, too. +Think of your charming mother and take care of yourself, prince. Well, I +have got to go. It's barbaric of me to leave you, but I'll soon be back. +Here are some books and magazines. Or wait, I have another occupation +for you. I want you to meet the best Jew in the world. I want you to +examine him in 'Gentile lore,' as his people would put it. They would +kill me, his people, if they knew he came to read my 'Gentile books.'" + +"He is a brainy fellow," she went on, leading the way through a +labyrinth of rooms and corridors, "chockful of that Talmud of theirs, +don't you know. Now that he is married they are trying to make a +business man of him, but he prefers worldly wisdom and that sort of +thing. I let him use my library, the only place he has for his 'unholy' +studies, in fact. He is supposed to come on business here. He lives in a +small town a mile from here." + +She was speaking in Russian now, a language she had perfect command of, +but which she spoke with a strong Polish accent, making it sound to +Pavel as though she was declaiming poetry. Twelve years ago, before she +inherited this estate, and when she still lived in Poland, her +birthplace, she could scarcely speak it at all. + +She took him into a room whose walls were lined with books, mostly old +and worn, and whose two windows looked out upon a frozen pond in front +of a snow-covered clump of trees. + +"Monsieur Parmet, Prince Boulatoff," she said, as a man sprang to his +feet with the air of one startled from mental absorption. He was of +strong, ungainly build, with the peculiar stamp of rabbinical +scholarship on a plump, dark-bearded face. "See how much he knows, +prince. He thinks he can take the examination for a certificate of +maturity and enter the university. But then he thinks he knows +everything." With this she left them to themselves. + +Pavel was in a whirl of embarrassment and annoyance, but the abashed +smile of the other mollified him. "What I need more than anything else +is to be examined in Latin and Greek," Parmet said. "I haven't had my +exercises looked over for a long time, and it may be all wrong for all I +know." His Russian had a Yiddish accent. He spoke in low, purring tones +that seemed to soften the heavy outline of his figure. He was a +lumbering mass of physical strength, one of those bearlike giants whom +village people will describe as bending horseshoes like so many blades +of grass or driving nails into a wall with their bare knuckles for a +hammer. His dark-brown eyes shone meekly. + +"Have you learned it all by yourself?" Pavel asked. + +"Not altogether." + +Pavel began with an air of lofty reluctance, but he was soon carried +away by the niceties of the ancient syntax, and his stiffness melted +into didactic animation. As to Parmet, his plump, dark face was an image +of religious ecstasy. Pavel warmed to him. His Talmudic gestures and +intonation amused him. + +"There's no trouble about your Latin," he said, familiarly; "no trouble +whatever." + +"Isn't there? It was Pani Oginska's son who gave me the first start," +the other said, blissfully, uttering the name in a lowered voice. "If it +had not been for him I should still be immersed in the depths of +darkness." + +"'Immersed in the depths of darkness!' There is a phrase for you! Why +should you use high-flown language like that?" + +Parmet smiled, shrugging his shoulders bashfully. "Will you kindly try +me on Greek now?" he said. + +"One second. That must have been quite a little while ago when Pani +Oginska's son taught you, wasn't it?" + +Parmet tiptoed over to the open door, closed it, tiptoed back and said: +"Not quite two years. If you knew what a man of gold he was! They are +slowly killing him, the murderers. And why? What had he done? He could +not harm a fly. He is all goodness, an angel like his mother. He was of +delicate health when they took him, and now he is melting like a +candle. Why, oh why, should men like him have to perish that way?" + +"Isn't it rather risky for you to be coming here?" Pavel demanded, +looking him over curiously. + +Parmet smiled, a queer, outlandish smile, at once naive and knowing, as +he replied: + +"Risky? No. What does an old-fashioned Jew like myself care about +politics? I am supposed to come here on business. Did you know Eugene?" + +"Who is Eugene? Pani Oginska's son?" + +"Yes. I thought you knew him." + +"I wish I had. People like him are the only ones worth knowing. Most of +the others are scoundrels, humbugs, cold-blooded egoists; that's what +they are." + +So talking, they gradually confided to each other the story of their +respective conversions and tribulations. Parmet followed the prince's +tale first with a look of childlike curiosity and then with an air that +betrayed emotion. As he listened he kept rubbing his hand nervously. +When Pavel had concluded, the Jew took to tiptoeing up and down the +room, stopped in front of him and said, with great ardour: + +"Don't grieve, my dear man. I may be able to help you. I know a friend +of Eugene's who could put you in touch with the proper persons." + +"Is he in St. Petersburg?" + +"No, but that's no matter. He can arrange it. He knows somebody there. +I'll see him as soon as I can, even if I have to travel many miles for +it." + +Pavel grasped his hand silently. + +"Well," the other said. "There was a time when I thought every Christian +hard-hearted and cruel. Now I am ashamed of myself for having harboured +such ideas in my mind. Every Christian whose acquaintance I happen to +make turns out to be an angel rather than a human being." + +"Why these compliments?" Pavel snarled. "Most of the Christians I know +are knaves. The whole world is made up of knaves for that matter." + +When Pani Oginska came home and saw them together, she said: + +"I knew I should find you two making love to each other." + + * * * * * + +A month or two after Pavel's return to St. Petersburg a tall blond young +man with typical Great-Russian features looked him up at the university. + +"I have received word from the south about you," he said, without +introducing himself. + +"I am pleased to meet you," Pavel returned gruffly, "but I hope I won't +be kept on probation and be subjected to all sorts of humiliations." + +"Why, why," the other said, in confusion. "I'll be glad to let you have +any kind of literature there is and to introduce you to other comrades. +That's why I have been looking for you. Why should you take it that +way?" + +Pavel's face broke into a smile. "Dashed if I know why I should. +Something possessed me to put on a harsh front. It was mere parading, I +suppose. Don't mind it. What shall I call you?" + +"Why--er--oh, call me anything," the other answered, colouring. + +"Very well, then. I'll call you Peter; or no, will 'godfather' do? That +is, provided you are really going to be one to me," Pavel said, in a +vain struggle to suppress his exultation. + +"It'll be all right," his new acquaintance replied with bashful ardour. + +"Godfather, then?" + +Godfather introduced him to several other "radicals," who gave him +underground prints and a list of legitimate books for a course of +"serious" reading. He would stay at home a whole week at a time without +dressing or going down for his meals, perusing volume after volume, +paper after paper. When he did dress and go out it was to get more books +or to seek answers to the questions which disturbed his peace. He was in +a state of vernal agitation, in a fever of lofty impulses. And so much +like a conspirator did he feel by now, that he no longer even thought of +opening his mind to his mother. Indeed, the change that had come over +him was so complete that she was not likely to understand him if he had. +To drive her to despair seemed to be the only result he could expect of +such a confession. The secret movement appealed to him as a host of +saints. He longed to be one of them, to be martyred with them. It was +clear to him that some day he would die for the Russian people; die a +slow, a terrible death; and this slow, terrible death impressed him as +the highest pinnacle of happiness. + +When his mother came to see him, a year later, she thought he was in +love. + +He was in the thick of the movement by that time. He was learning +shoemaking with a view to settling in a village. He would earn his +livelihood in the sweat of his brow, and he would carry the light of his +lofty ideas into the hovels of the suffering peasantry. But his plans in +this direction were never realized. The period of "going to the people" +soon came to an end. + +The mothlike self-immolation of university students continued, but the +spirit of unresisting martyrdom could not last. Violence was bound to +result from it. + +The next year saw the celebrated "trial of 193," mostly college men and +college women. They were charged with political propaganda, and the bold +stand they took thrilled the country. The actual number tried was, +indeed, much less than 193, for of those who had been kept in prison in +connection with that case as many as seventy had perished in their cold, +damp cells while waiting to be arraigned. Of those who were tried many +were acquitted, but instead of regaining their liberty a large number of +these were transported to Siberia "by administrative order." Moreover, +hundreds of people were slowly killed in the dungeons or exiled to +Siberia without any process of law whatsoever. School children were +buried in these consumption breeding cells; whole families were ruined +because one of their members was accused of reading a socialist +pamphlet. Student girls were subjected to indignities by dissolute +officials--all "by administrative order." + +The Russian penal code imposes the same penalty for disfiguring the eyes +of an imperial portrait as it does for blinding a live subject of the +Czar. But political suspects were tortured without regard even to this +code. + +It gradually dawned upon the propagandists that instead of being +decimated in a fruitless attempt to get at the common people they should +first devote themselves to an effort in the direction of free speech. By +a series of bold attacks it was expected to extort the desired reforms +from the government. Nothing was lawless, so it was argued, when +directed, in self-defence, against the representatives of a system that +was the embodiment of bloodthirsty lawlessness. + +Thus peaceful missionaries became Terrorists. The government inaugurated +a system of promiscuous executions; the once unresisting propagandists +retaliated by assassination after assassination. Socialists were hanged +for disseminating their ideas or for resisting arrest; high officials +were stabbed or shot down for the bloodthirsty cruelty with which they +fought the movement; and finally a series of plots was inaugurated +aiming at the life of the emperor himself. + +The White Terror of the throne was met by the Red Terror of the +Revolution. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A MEETING ON NEW TERMS. + + +It was an evening in the spring, 1879. The parlour of a wealthy young +engineer in Kharkoff--a slender little man with eyelids that looked +swollen and a mouth that was usually half-open, giving him a drowsy +appearance--was filled with Nihilists come to hear "an important man +from St. Petersburg." The governor of the province had recently been +killed for the maltreatment of political prisoners and students of the +local university, while a month later a bold attempt had been made on +the life of the Czar at the capital. The new phase of the movement was +asserting itself with greater and greater emphasis, and the address by +the stranger, who was no other than Pavel Boulatoff, though he was known +here as Nikolai, was awaited with thrills of impatience. + +The room was fairly crowded and the speaker of the evening was on hand, +but the managers of the gathering were waiting for several more +listeners. When two of these arrived, one of them proved to be Elkin. He +and Pavel had not met since their graduation from the Miroslav +gymnasium. Both wore scant growths of beard and both looked considerably +changed, though Pavel was still slim and boyish of figure and Elkin's +face as anaemic and chalk-coloured as it had been four years ago. Elkin +had been expelled from the University for signing some sort of +petition. Since then he had nominally been engaged in revolutionary +business. In reality he spent his nights in gossip and tea-drinking, and +his days in sleep. Too proud to sponge on his Nihilist friends for more +than tea and bread and an occasional cutlet, and too lazy to give +lessons, he was growing ever thinner and lazier. He was a man of +spotless honesty, overflowing with venom, yet endowed with a certain +kind of magnetism. + +When Elkin discovered who the important revolutionist from St. +Petersburg was the blood rushed to his face. It was a most disagreeable +surprise. But Pavel greeted him with a cordiality so free from +consciousness, and his roaring laughter, as he compared the +circumstances of their last quarrel and those that surrounded their +present meeting, was so hearty that Elkin's hostility gave way to a +feeling of elation at being so well received by the lion of the evening. +He was one of the rank and file of the local "Circles," and the +prominence into which Pavel's attention brought him at this meeting, in +the presence of several of his chums, gave him a sense of promotion and +triumph. He wished he could whisper into the ear of everybody present +that this important revolutionist who was known to the gathering as +Nikolai was Prince Boulatoff. + +"I am still in the dark as to the identity of that girl," said Pavel. + +"I shouldn't keep it from you now," the other returned, exposing an +exultant lozenge of white teeth. "Next time we meet in Miroslav I shall +look her up and introduce you to her. I have not seen her for a long +time. She is quite an interesting specimen." + +"I should like to meet her very much," Pavel said earnestly. "I have +been wanting to know something about her all along. You see, if there +were a circle in that blessed out-of-the-way town of ours one might be +able to find out things, but if there is I have not seen anybody who +knows of its existence. I myself have not been there for two years." + +"I was there last summer. There is a small circle there. At least there +are several people who get things through me, but that girl I have not +seen for a long time." + +"Is it possible? Can it be that you have not tried to get her in? +Really, a Miroslav circle without her seems like Hamlet without the +Prince of Denmark." + +"Yes, she is a lass with some grit to her, and with brains too." + +"If she is, we ought to get her in. We ought to get her in." + +"She was only sixteen when that affair happened." + +"Was she? Well, you wouldn't believe it, but my curiosity about that +girl has been smouldering ever since. If it were not for her and for +poor Pievakin I might not be in the movement now." + +"I see. It needed a little girl to make a convert of a great man like +you. Well, well. That's interesting," Elkin remarked, with a +lozenge-shaped sneer; but he hastened to atone for it by adding, +ardently: "You're right. She should be in the circle. I'll make it my +business to see her next time I am there. I'll go there on purpose, in +fact." + +He was always trying to be clever, for the most part with venom in his +attempts. Friend or foe, whatever humour was his was habitually coloured +by an impulse to sting. "For the sake of a pretty word he would not +spare his own father," as a Russian proverb phrases it, and his pretty +words or puns were usually tinctured with malice. + +He painted the Miroslav girl in the most attractive colours. It gave +him a peculiar satisfaction to whet Pavel's curiosity and to be able to +say mutely: "Indeed, she is even more interesting than you suppose, yet +while you are so crazy to know her, I, who do know her, have not even +thought of getting her into my Circle." + +When Pavel was making his speech Elkin, whose natural inclination was to +disapprove, listened with an air of patronising concurrence. Pavel's +oratory was of the unsophisticated, "hammer-and-tongs," fiery type, yet +its general effect, especially when he assailed existing conditions, was +one of complaint. In spite of the full-throated buzz of his voice and +the ferocious rush of his words, he conveyed the impression of a +schoolboy laying his grievance before his mother. + +Before he took leave from his former classmate the two had another talk +of the "heroine of the Pievakin demonstration." It was Elkin who brought +up the subject, which took them back to the time when, from a Nihilist +point of view, he was Pavel's superior. He found him a ready listener. +The student girls of the secret movement, their devotion to the cause, +their pluck, the inhuman sufferings which the government inflicted on +those of them who fell into its hands,--all this was the aureole of +Pavel's ecstasy. His heart had remained spotless, the wild oats he had +sown during the first weeks of his stay in the capital notwithstanding. +The word Woman would fill him with tender whisperings of a felicity +hallowed by joint sacrifices, of love crowned with martyrdom, and it was +part of the soliloquies which the sex would breathe into his soul to +tell himself that he owned his conversion to a girl. But these were +sentimentalities of which the Spartan traditions of the underground +movement had taught him to be ashamed. Moreover, there was really no +time for such things. + +During the following summer and fall mines were laid in several places +under railway tracks over which the Emperor was expected to pass. The +revolutionists missed their aim, but the Czar's narrow escape, coupled +with the gigantic scope of the manifold plot, with the skill and the +boldness it implied, and with the fact that the digging of these +subterranean passages had gone on for months without attracting notice, +made a profound impression. Such a display of energy and dexterity on +the part of natives in a country where one was accustomed to trace every +bit of enterprise to some foreign agency, could not but produce a +fascinating effect. The gendarmes were apparently no match for the +Nihilists. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"TERRORISM WITHOUT VIOLENCE." + + +One afternoon, in December of the same year, Pavel sat in a student +restaurant, in the capital, eating fried steak and watching the door for +a man with whom he had an appointment. He ate without appetite and +looked fatigued and overworked. He had been out from an early hour, +bustling about on perilous business and dodging spies. It was extremely +exhausting and enervating, this prowling about under the perpetual +strain of danger. He was liable to be arrested at any moment. It was +like living continually under fire. + +The restaurant was full of cigarette smoke and noise. Somebody in the +rear of Pavel, who evidently had nothing to say, was addressing somebody +else in high-flown Russian and with great gusto. His fine resonant +voice, of which he was apparently conscious, jarred on Pavel's nerves, +interfering with what little relish he had for his meal. He was eyeing +the design on the frost-covered door-glass and lashing himself into a +fury over the invisible man's phrase-mongery, when he was accosted by a +fair-complexioned young woman: + +"Pardon me, but if I am not mistaken you are Prince Boulatoff?" + +"That's my name. And with whom have I the pleasure----?" + +"Oh, that would really be uninteresting to know. I'll tell you, though, +that I belong to Miroslav." + +He reluctantly invited her to a glass of tea, which she accepted, +saying: "It may look as if I were forcing myself upon your acquaintance, +prince, but I really could not help it. Whatever comes from Miroslav is +irresistible to me." And talking rapidly in effervescent, choking +sentences, she told him that her name was Maria Andreevna Safonova +(Safonoff), that she was a student at the Bestusheff Women's College and +that her brother was a major of gendarmes. + +Pavel had heard of there being a daughter or a sister of a Miroslav +gendarme officer at the Bestusheff College; also that she made a +favourable impression on her classmates; but he had been too busy to +give the information more than passing notice. + +"Is your brother in Miroslav?" he asked. + +"Yes, and I can assure you he is a gentleman, even if he is in the +gendarme service. Some day, I hope, he'll give it up. He is really too +good to be in the business." + +Pavel ascribed her ebullition to the nature of the subject, but he soon +found that she was in the same state of excitement when a railroad +ticket was the topic. She looked twenty-three but she had the cheeks and +eyes of a chubby infant, while her arms and figure had the lank, +immature effect of a girl of thirteen. + +While they sat talking, a dark man in the military uniform of the +Medico-Surgical Academy entered the cafe. It was Parmet, the man Pavel +was waiting for. Finding him engaged, the newcomer passed his table +without greeting him, took a seat in a remote corner and buried himself +in a book. + +Mlle. Safonoff did all the talking. She had not sat at Boulatoff's +table half an hour nor said much about Miroslav before she had poured +out some of her most intimate thoughts to him. + +"If you think it a pleasure to be the sister of a gendarme officer you +are mistaken," she said. "It is not agreeable to be treated by everybody +as though you had been put at the college to spy upon the girls, is it? +My brother is a better man than the brothers and fathers and +grandfathers of all the other student-girls put together, I assure you, +prince. But then, of course, you may think I'm trying to spy on you, +too." + +"No, I don't," said Boulatoff with a laugh, pricking up his ears. + +"Don't you, really?" And her eyes bubbled. + +"Of course, I don't." + +"Oh, if you knew how good he is, my brother. Do you remember the time +when poor Pievakin left Miroslav? I know you do. You were in the eighth +class then. Well, I may as well tell you, prince"--she lowered her +voice--"had it not been for my brother there would have been no end of +arrests at the railroad station. He simply told his men not to make a +fuss. You see, I can confide in you without hesitation, for who would +suspect a Boulatoff of--pardon the word--spying? But I, why, I am the +sister of a gendarme officer, so it is quite natural to suppose, and so +forth and so on, don't you know." + +"Do you know the girl who made that speech?" + +"There you are," she said dolefully. "I happened to be at the other end +of the room just then. When I tried to find out who she was everybody +was mum. Fancy, my best girl-friend said to me: 'If I were you, Masha, I +shouldn't want to know her name if I could. Suppose you utter it in +sleep and your brother overhears you.' The idiots! They didn't know it +was my brother who saved that girl from being arrested. And, by the way, +if she had been arrested by some of his men, it would not have been hard +for her to escape. I know I am saying more than I should, but I really +can't help it. You have no idea how I feel about these things. And now, +at the sight of you, prince--a man from Miroslav--I seem to be going to +pieces altogether. Well, I don't mean, though, that my brother would +have let her escape. But then I have an aunt, who is related to the +warden of the Miroslav prison by marriage, so she can arrange things +there. Oh, she's the greatest revolutionist you ever saw. Of course, I +don't know whether you sympathise with these things, prince, but I'll +tell you frankly, _I_ do. It was that aunt of mine who talked it into +me. She is simply crazy to do something. She is sorry there are no +political prisoners in Miroslav. If there were she would get them out. +She's just itching for a chance to do something of that sort. And yet +she never met a revolutionist in her life, nor saw a scrap of +underground paper." + +To question the ingenuousness of this gush seemed to be the rankest +absurdity. The Russian spies of the period were poor actors. Pavel was +seized by a desire to show her that he, at least, did not suspect her of +spying, and quite forgetting to restrain the "idiotic breadth" of his +Russian nature for which he was often rebuked by a certain member of the +revolutionary Executive Committee who was forever berating his comrades +for their insufficient caution, he slipped a crisp copy of the _Will of +the People_ into her hand. + +"Put it into your muff," he said. + +The colour surged into her chubby face. Her whole figure seemed tense +with sudden excitement, as though the fine glossy paper in her hand +were charged with electricity. + +"How shall I thank you?" she gasped. + +Pavel saw a moist glitter in her eyes, and as he got up, his slender +erect little frame, too, seemed charged with electricity. When she had +gone he asked himself whether it had not all been acting, after all. He +cursed himself for his imprudence, but he said: "Oh, well, what must be +will be," and as usual the phrase acted like an effectual incantation on +his frame of mind. + + * * * * * + +Parmet had been dubbed Bismarck, because he bore considerable +resemblance to Gambetta. Another nickname, one which he had invented +himself, on a similar theory of contrasts, was Makar. Makar was as +typically Slavic as his face was Semitic. His military uniform, which he +had to wear because his Academy was under the auspices of the War +Department, ill became him. Instead of concealing the rabbinical +expression of his face, it emphasised it. When they came out of the +restaurant, a man, shouldering a stick, was running along the +snow-covered pavement, lighting the street-lamps, as though in dread of +being forestalled by somebody. + +"Guess who that girl is," Pavel said. + +"Have I heard of her?" + +"No. Quite an amusing sort of a damsel. Seething and steaming for all +the world like a samovar. You should have seen her calflike ecstasy when +I handed her something to read. I was afraid she was going to have a +fit." + +Makar trotted silently on, continually curling himself in his wretched +grey cloak and striking one foot against the other, to knock the caked +drab-coloured snow off his boots. Pavel wore a new furred coat. + +"She may be useful though," Pavel resumed, after a pause. "That is, +provided she is all she seems to be. Her brother is a gendarme major. +What do you think of that?" + +"Is he?" Makar asked, looking up at his companion in beatific surprise. + +"Yes, and she says he's a good fellow, too. Of course, she's quite a +full-fledged ninny herself, and ought to be taken with a carload of +salt, but she referred to some facts with which I happen to be +familiar." While he was describing the girl's aunt, a passing soldier +saluted Makar, mistaking him for an army officer. Makar, however, was +too absorbed in his companion's talk to be aware of what was going on +about him. Pavel shrieked with laughter. "He must be a pretty raw sort +of recruit to take _you_ for a warrior," he said. When he had finished +his sketch of the woman who was longing to set somebody free, the +medical student paused in the middle of the sidewalk. + +"Why, she's a godsend, then," he said. + +"Moderate your passions, Mr. Army Officer," Pavel said languidly, +mocking his old gymnasium director. "If she does not turn out to be a +spy we'll see what we can do with her. She strikes me rather favourably, +though." + +"Why, you oughtn't to neglect her, Pasha. If I were you I would lose no +time in making her brother's acquaintance. Think of the possibilities of +it!" + +"Bridle your exuberance, young man. Her brother lives many miles from +here. He is on the hunt for sedition in the most provincial of +provinces. Want to make a Terrorist of him? Go ahead. He lives in +Miroslav. There." + +"In Miroslav!" Makar echoed, with pride in the capital of his native +province. + +Presently they entered a courtyard and took to climbing a steep stony +staircase. Strong, inviting odours of cabbage soup and cooked meat +greeted them at several of the landings. Makar's lodging was on the +sixth floor. He had moved in only a few days ago and the chief object of +Pavel's visit was to make a mental note of its location. + +The first thing Makar did as he got into the room was to put a pitcher +on one of his two windows. The windows commanded a little side street, +and the pitcher was Makar's safety signal. When he had lit his lamp a +sofa, freshly covered with green oil-cloth, proved to be the best piece +of furniture in the room, the smell of the oil-cloth mingling with the +stale odours of tobacco smoke with which the very walls seemed to be +saturated. + +"Ugh, what a room!" Pavel said, sniffing. They talked of a revolutionist +who had recently been arrested and to whom they referred as "Alexandre." +Special importance was attached by the authorities to the capture of +this man, because among the things found at his lodgings was a diagram +of the Winter Palace with a pencil mark on the imperial dining hall. As +the prisoner was a conspicuous member of the Terrorists' Executive +Committee, the natural inference was that another bold plot was under +way, one which had something to do with the Czar's dining room, but +which had apparently been frustrated by the discovery of the diagram. +The palace guard was strongly re-enforced and every precaution was taken +to insure the monarch's safety. Now, the Terrorists had their man in the +very heart of the enemy's camp, and the result of the search of +Alexandre's lodgings was no secret to them. This revolutionist, whose +gloomy face was out of keeping with his carefully pomaded hair, kid +gloves, silk hat, showy clothes and carefully trimmed whiskers a la +Alexander II., was known to Makar as "the Dandy." Less than a year +before he had obtained a position in the double capacity of spy and +clerk, at the Third Section of his Majesty's Own Office, and so liked +was he by his superiors that he had soon been made private secretary to +the head of the secret service, every document of importance passing +through his hands. Since then he had been communicating to the Executive +Committee, now a list of new suspects, now the details of a contemplated +arrest, now a copy of some secret circular to the gendarme offices of +the empire. + +While they were thus conversing of Alexandre and the Dandy, Pavel +stretched himself full length on the sofa and dozed off. When he opened +his eyes, about two hours later, he found Parmet tiptoeing awkwardly up +and down the room, his shadow a gigantic crab on the wall. Pavel broke +into a boisterous peal of laughter. + +"Here is a figure for you! All that is needed is an artist to set to +work and paint it." + +"Are you awake? Look here, Pasha. Your gendarme's sister and her aunt +are haunting my mind." + +"Why, why, have you fallen in love with both of them at once?" Pavel +asked as he jumped to his feet and shot his arms toward the ceiling. He +looked refreshed and full of animal spirits. + +"Stop joking, Pasha, pray," Makar said in his purring, mellifluous +voice. "It irritates me. It's a serious matter I want to speak to you +about, and here you are bent upon fun." Pavel's story of the gendarme +officer's sister had stirred in him visions of a mighty system of +counter-espionage. He had a definite scheme to propose. + +Pavel found it difficult to work himself out of his playful mood until +Makar fell silent and took to pacing the floor resentfully. When he had +desisted, with a final guffaw over Makar's forlorn air, the medical +student, warming up to fresh enthusiasm, said: + +"Well, to let that prison stand idle would be criminal negligence. That +girl's aunt must be given a chance." + +"What's that?" Pavel said, relapsing into horseplay. "Do you want +somebody nabbed on purpose to give a bored lady something to excite her +nerves?" He finished the interrogation rather limply. It flashed upon +him that what Makar was really aiming at was that some revolutionist +should volunteer to be arrested on a denunciation from the Dandy or some +other member of the party with a view to strengthening its position in +the Third Section. + +Makar went on to plead for an organised effort to get into the various +gendarme offices. + +"It is a terrible struggle we are in, Pasha. Our best men fall before +they have time to turn round. If we had more revolutionists on the other +side, Alexandre might be a free man now." + +"Well, and sooner or later you and I will be where he is now and be +plunged into the sleep of the righteous, and there won't even be a goat +to graze at our graves. Let the dead bury the dead, Makashka. We want +the living for the firing line. We can't afford to let fresh blood turn +sour in a damp cell, if we can help it." + +"But this is 'the firing line'," Makar returned with beseeching, almost +with tearful emphasis. "If you only gave me a chance to explain myself. +What I want is to have confusion carried into every branch of the +government; I want the Czar to be surrounded by a masquerade of enemies, +so that his henchmen will suspect each other of being either agents of +the Third Section or revolutionists. Do you see the point? I want the +Czar to be surrounded by a babel of mistrust and espionage. I want him +to be dazed, staggered until he succumbs to this nightmare of suspicion +and hastens to convoke a popular assembly, as Louis XVI. was forced to +do; I want the inhabitants of our tear-drenched country to be treated +like human beings without delay. My scheme practically amounts to a +system or terrorism without violence, and I insist that one good man in +the enemy's camp is of more value than the death of ten spies." His low, +velvety voice rang clear, tremulous with pleading fervour; his face +gleamed with an intellectual relish in his formula of the plan. As he +spoke, he was twisting his mighty fist, opening and closing it again, +Talmud-fashion, in unison with the rhythm of his sentences. + +Ejaculations like "visionary!" "phrase-maker!" were on the tip of +Pavel's tongue, but he had not the heart to utter them. Aerial as the +scheme was, Makar's plea had cast a certain spell over him. It was like +listening to a beautiful piece of mythology. + +"Let us form a special force of men ready to go to prison, to be +destroyed, if need be," Makar went on. "The loss of one man would mean, +in each case, the saving of twenty. Think how many important comrades a +single leak in the Third Section has saved us. It's a matter of plain +arithmetic." + +"Of plain insanity," Pavel finally broke in. + +"Don't get excited, Pasha, pray. Can't you let me finish? If I am wrong +you'll have plenty of time to prove it." + +His purring Talmudic voice and the smell of the fresh oil-cloth were +unbearable to Pavel now. + +"It's like this," Makar resumed. "In the first place [he bent down his +little finger] every honest man is sure to be arrested some day, and +what difference does it make whether the end comes a few months sooner +or a few months later? In the second place [he bent down the next +finger] there must be some more people like that girl's aunt. It is +quite possible that most of those who would be arrested on this plan +would get out, and that itself would be a good thing, for it would add +to the prestige of the party. Everything that reveals the weakness of +the government on the one hand, and the cleverness and daring of our +people on the other, is good for the cause. Every success scored by the +'Will of the People' is a step in the direction of that for which men +like yourself are staking their lives, Pasha. Don't interrupt me, pray. +I'll go a step further. I am of the opinion that under certain +conditions, where an escape is assured, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let +one's self be arrested just in order to add another name to the list of +political gaol-breakers, that is to say, to the list of the government's +fiascos. Every little counts. Every straw increases that weight which +will finally break the back of Russia's despot." + +"Do you really mean what you say, Makar? Do you actually want to be +arrested?" Pavel asked. + +"Not at all. All I want is that another good man should gain the +confidence of the Third Section and that another political prisoner +should escape." + +"And what if all Mlle. Safonoff says turns out to be as idiotic a dream +as all this tommyrot of yours?" + +"'If one is afraid of wolves one had better keep out of the woods.' You, +yourself, have taken much greater chances than that, Pasha. If I am +arrested with papers and the worst comes to the worst they won't hang +me." + +"I see you take it seriously after all. Well, if you think I'll let you +do anything of the kind you are a fool." + +"You can't prevent me from doing what I consider to be right. Nor do I +want anybody else to send the denunciation which is to result in my +arrest. I'll send it myself. All I want is that somebody should claim +credit for it afterward, when I am in prison--on that very day, if +possible. The search and arrest will be ordered from St. Petersburg, and +then some of our men will say at the Third Section that the anonymous +letter was his, adding some details about me. Details can be worked out +later. Where there is a will there is a way. At any rate, I don't expect +anybody but myself to bear the moral responsibility for my arrest." + +He talked on in the same strain until Pavel sprang to his feet, flushed +with rage. "It's all posing--that's all there's to it!" he shouted. "On +the surface it means that you are willing to sacrifice yourself without +even attracting attention, but in reality this subtle modesty of yours +is only the most elaborate piece of parading that was ever conceived. +It's love of applause all the way through, and you are willing to stake +your life on it. That's all there is about it." + +Makar grew yellow in the face and sweat broke out on his forehead. "In +that case, there's no use talking, of course," he said in a very low +voice. "If I am a humbug I am a humbug." + +"And if you are a fool, you are a fool," Pavel rejoined, with a +conciliatory growl. + +"You need not back out, Pasha. Maybe you are right," Makar rejoined. +"Who is absolutely free from vanity? Human nature is such a complex +mechanism. One may be governed by love of approbation and, perhaps, +also, by a certain adventuresome passion for the danger of the thing. +The great question is whether there is something besides this. No, it is +not all posing, Pasha. There are moments when I ask myself why I should +not live as most people do, but I only have to realise all that is going +on around us; the savage tyranny, the writhing millions, the hunger, +the bottomless darkness, the unuttered groans,--I only have to think of +this and of the dear comrades I have known who have been strangled on +the gallows or are wasting away in the casemates; I need only picture +all this, I say, to feel that even if there be an alloy of selfishness +in my revolutionary interests, yet, in the main, it is this sense of the +Great Wrong which keeps me from nursing my own safety. Do you know that +the dangling corpses of our comrades are never absent from my mind? I am +not without a heart, Pasha." + +"Nobody says you are, only you are a confounded dreamer, Makashka," +Pavel answered. "We have no time for dreams and poetry. Our struggle is +one of hard, terrible prose." + +"You are even more of a dreamer than I, Pasha," Makar retorted, +blissfully. + +When Makar resumed speaking the last echo of resentment was gone from +his voice. "After all, one gets more than one gives. When I think of the +moments of joy the movement affords me, of the ties of friendship with +so many good people--the cream of the generation, the salt of the earth, +the best children Russia ever gave birth to--when I think of the +glorious atmosphere that surrounds me, of the divine ecstasy with which +I view the future; when I recall all this I feel that I get a sort of +happiness which no Rothschild could buy. To be kept in solitary +confinement is anything but a pleasure, to be sure, but is there nothing +to sweeten one's life there? And how about the thought that over yonder, +outside, there are people who are going on with the struggle and who +think of you sometimes? Sooner or later the government will yield. And +then, oh then somebody--some comrade of ours--will throw the cell-door +open, and I'll join in the celebration of our triumph. Really, Pasha, I +am strong as a bull, and a few years of confinement would not kill me. +While some of our people may die by the hand of the hangman, my life +would be spared. Did you ever stop to think of the time when the cells +of Siberia and of Peter and Paul are thrown open and one says to the +immured comrades, 'Out with you, brothers! You're free! The nation is +free!' Come, another year or two and this will be realised." + +"You had better save your sentimentalities for novices," Pavel said. +"And, by the way, your eloquence is certainly of more use than your +dreaming in a dungeon would be." + +He was arguing with a rock of stiff-necked will-power. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +MAKAR'S CANVASS. + + +Parmet now gave most of his time to the secret movement, making himself +useful in a variety of ways. His great unrealised ambition, however, was +to work in an underground printing office--an offence which at the +period was punished by a long term of penal servitude in Siberia. He had +a feeling as though nothing one did for the movement could be regarded +as a vital service to the cause of free speech as long as it fell short +of typesetting in a secret printing establishment. He had applied for +work of this kind several times, but his proverbial absent-mindedness +stood in his way. Being in the habit of reading some book or newspaper +as he walked through the streets, he would sometimes catch himself +drinking in the contents of some "underground" publication in this +manner. Once as he stood on a street corner intent upon a revolutionary +leaflet, he heard an infuriated whisper: + +"Imbecile! Scoundrel!" + +When he raised his eyes he saw the ample back of a compactly built man +dressed in citizen's clothes except for a broad military cap with a red +band. This was "the Janitor," so nicknamed because he made it his +business to go the rounds of "conspiracy houses" every morning and to +pick a quarrel with those of their occupants who had neglected to +furnish their windows with safety signals or were guilty of some other +manifestation of "Russian breadth." The episode antedated the above +conversation between Makar and Pavel by two months, and the medical +student had not seen the Janitor since. He dreaded to meet him. At this +minute, however, he was just the man he wanted to see, for it was he who +had taken the initiative in getting the Dandy into the Third Section. +Accordingly, Pavel had no sooner left him than he betook himself to a +place at which he expected to find that revolutionist. The place was the +lodging of a man who was known in the organisation as Purring Cat--a +nickname based on his shaggy eyebrows and moustache. His face was almost +entirely overgrown with hair. Short of stature, with a thick dark beard +that reached down to his knees and with blue eyes that peered up from +under his stern eyebrows, this formidable looking little man, the +nearest approach to the wax-works version of a Russian Nihilist, was the +gentlest soul on the Executive Committee. Besides Purring Cat and the +Janitor, Makar found in the room Andrey, an extremely tall man with +Tartarian features. + +The Janitor greeted Makar with a volley of oaths, stuttering as he +spoke, as was usually the case when he was angry. + +"You have no business to be here," he fulminated. "You are just the man +to bring a spy in tow. I shouldn't be a bit surprised if you had one at +your heels now." + +"Come, don't fume," Makar pleaded, confusedly. "I won't be absent-minded +any more. I have taken myself in hand. Besides, my absent-mindedness is +not without its redeeming feature. You see, I am the last man to be +suspected of being on my guard; so the spies would never bother me." + +Andrey and Purring Cat smiled. The Janitor started to do the same, but +changed his mind. Instead, he broke into a more violent fit of temper +and a more painful stutter than before. His compact figure was of medium +height, his face very blond, with prominent eyes and well-trimmed red +beard. His military cap matched the passport of a retired army officer +under which he was registered at the police station. He was supposed to +be employed at some civil tribunal, and every morning, on the stroke of +eleven he would leave his lodgings, a portfolio under his arm, his +military cap slightly cocked--the very personification of the part he +acted. The name in his passport was Polivanoff. His real name was +Michailoff, and under that name he was wanted by the gendarmes in +prominent connection with several attempts on the life of the Czar. He +had once escaped from under arrest and on another occasion he had +managed to disappear from a railroad train while it was being searched +for him. He was one of the ablest and bravest men in the party. His +un-Russian punctuality and indefatigable attention to detail; his +practical turn of mind and the way he had of nagging his friends for +their lack of these qualities, were common topics of banter among the +Terrorists. He had made a special study of every lane and court in the +capital by which one might "trash" one's trail. He not only shadowed his +fellow revolutionists to see if they were aware of being shadowed or +whether they dressed in accordance with the type implied by their false +passports, but he also made a practice of spying over the spies of the +Third Section. With this end in view, he had once rented a room across +the street from that office--an institution that would have given +millions for his head. Here he would sit for hours at his window, +scrutinising every new person who entered the building so as to be able +to keep track of their movements afterward. Having thus discovered a +boarding house in which lived an important officer of the secret service +he had sent the Dandy to hire a room there. The desired appointment had +then been obtained without difficulty. + +When Makar had laid the practical part of his scheme before the three +men, the Janitor fixed his prominent eyes on him and said, without +stammering: + +"And you are just the chap to do it, aren't you?" + +"And why not? It certainly doesn't need much adroitness and vigilance to +get arrested." + +"The devil it does not. A fellow like you would get ten men arrested +before he fooled the measliest cub spy in the Third Section. Better keep +your hands off." + +"Oh, well, if the escape was really a sure thing, the matter might be +arranged," Purring Cat interposed, charitably, in a low, gentle voice. +"Only this is scarcely the time for it." Whereupon Makar, feeling +encouraged, launched out to describe his far-reaching scheme in detail. +The look of the Janitor's prominent eyes, however, disturbed him, so +that he expounded the plan in a rather nerveless way; when he had +finished, the Janitor declared: + +"He's certainly crazy." + +Purring Cat's blue eyes looked up under their bushy brows, as he said, +gravely: + +"There may be something in it, though, theoretically at least. In +reality, however, I am afraid that general state of chaos would rebound +upon ourselves. The government may get its spies into our circles until +one does not know who is who. It may become a double-edged weapon, this +'babel of distrust.' As to that prison scheme it might be tried some +day. Only don't be in a hurry, Makar." + +"And what is your opinion?" Makar addressed himself to Andrey +solicitously. + +Andrey who was a man of few words, and spoke with a slight lisp, said he +had no definite opinion to offer, but, when Makar pressed him hard, he +said: + +"Well, we have one man there" (meaning the Third Section), "so let us +not make the mistake of the woman who cut her hen open in order to get +at all her eggs at once. Still, if the scheme could be worked in some of +the provinces, it might be worth while. It all depends on circumstances, +of course." + +Makar longed to see Sophia, the daughter of the former governor of St. +Petersburg. She had taken an active part in one of the most daring +rescues and was celebrated for the ingenuity and motherly devotion with +which she gave herself to the "Red Cross" work of the party, supplying +political prisoners with provisions and keeping them in secret +communication with their relatives. It was the story of this young +noblewoman's life which afterwards inspired Turgeneff's prose poem, _The +Threshold_. Makar thought she might take an active interest in his +scheme, but she was overwhelmed with other work and inaccessible. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A DAY UNDERGROUND. + + +About a week had elapsed, when Pavel read in his morning paper of the +hanging of three revolutionists in Odessa: two Gentiles and a Jew. He +had never met these men, but he knew that two of them had not been +implicated in anything more violent than the diffusion of socialist +ideas. Also that the parents of the one who belonged to the Jewish race +were under arrest, condemned to be exiled to Siberia for no other crime +than their having given birth to an enemy of the existing regime. + +Pavel moved about his room with a sob of helpless fury in his throat. He +found feverish satisfaction in the thought that he had some chemicals in +his overcoat which he was to carry to the dynamite shop of the +Terrorists. The explosives to be made from it were intended for a new +attempt upon the life of the Emperor. Not being directly connected with +the contemplated attack, neither he nor the dynamite makers of the +organisation had any clear idea about the plot, which was in the hands +of a special sub-committee, Alexandre's place having been taken by +another man; but he did know that preparations were under way in the +Winter Palace. + +The dynamite shop was kept by a woman with a deep-chested, almost +masculine voice, and a man with a squeaky feminine one. They were +registered as man and wife. She was the daughter of a priest, but she +looked like a woman of the people and dressed like one--a thick-set +extremely blonde young woman with coarse yet pleasing features. Her +revolutionary name was Baska. Her fictitious husband, who was one of the +chemists of the party, was addressed by the revolutionists as Grisha. He +had a scholarly face, yet the two had no difficulty in passing among the +neighbours for a tradesman or shop clerk and his wife. For the greater +reality of the impersonation and as a special precaution against +curiosity they made friends with the porter of the house and his wife +and with the police roundsman of the neighbourhood, often inviting them +to a glass of vodka. The porter of St. Petersburg, like his brother of +Paris under the empire, is a political detective "ex-officio." The two +spies and the police officer were thus turned into unconscious witnesses +of the young couple's political innocence, for in the first place they +had many an opportunity to convince themselves that their dwelling was +free from anything suspicious and, in the second, people who drank vodka +and went, moreover, on sprees with the house porter, certainly did not +look like Nihilists. + +"Good morning, Pavel," Baska greeted him vivaciously, as she gave his +hand a hearty squeeze, while her other hand held a smoking cigarette. +"Just in time! I hate to eat my breakfast all alone. Grisha has another +bad headache, poor fellow. But I see you, too, have a long face. Where +did you get it?" + +Pavel smiled lugubriously as he handed her the package. He had not the +heart to disturb her good spirits, and she went on chirping and +laughing. + +Grisha came in, haggard, sickly and trying to smile. The skin of both +his hands was off. This, like his frequent headaches, was the effect of +the work he did in these rooms--of inhaling nitroglycerine and kneading +dynamite with his bare fists. + +Baska gayly told how the porter's wife had offered her a salve for her +"husband," and how the night before, as Grisha was pouring +nitroglycerine into some dynamite "dough," there was an explosion and +the house filled with smoke. + +"Our next door neighbour knew at once that our kerosene stove exploded +and set fire to a rag," Baska said with a deep-voiced titter. "She gave +me quite a lecture on negligence." + +"She only wondered why there should be such a strange smell to the +smoke," Grisha added, his hand to his head. + +As Pavel looked at Baska relishing her tea and her muffin and talking +merrily between gulps, a desire took hold of him to spoil her vivacity. +It jarred on him to see her enjoy herself while the image of the three +new gallows was so vivid in his mind. + +"You people don't seem to know what's going on in the world," he said +testily. "They have hanged Malinka, Maidanski and Drobiazgin." + +"Have they?" Baska asked paling. She had known two of them personally. + +While Pavel took out his newspaper and read the brief despatch, her head +sank on the table. Her solid frame was convulsed with sobbing. + +"Be calm, be calm," Grisha entreated, offering her a glass of water. In +spite of her excellent physique she was subject to violent hysterical +fits which were apt to occur at a time when the proffer of neighbourly +sympathy was least desirable. + +She told all she remembered of the executed men, whom she had met in +the south. But that was not much; so Pavel went to see Purring Cat who, +being a southerner, had detailed information to give him about the three +Nihilists. Boulatoff could talk of nothing else that day. When he met +Makar, in the afternoon, he said: + +"People are being strangled right and left and here you are bent on that +_idee fixe_ of yours." + +"Fine logic, that," Makar replied. "If my _idee fixe_ had been realised +a year ago these men would now be free. But this is not the time to talk +about things of that kind." Instead of mourning the loss of the three +revolutionists he was in a solemn, religious sort of mood at the thought +of the new human sacrifices offered on the altar of liberty. He was +panting to speak about the Jew who had been executed. He was proud of +the fact that two men of his race had given their lives for the cause +within five months. The other Jewish revolutionist had been executed in +Nicolayeff. A letter which he had addressed to the revolutionists a few +days before his execution, exhorting them not to waste any of the forces +of the movement on attempts to avenge his death, was enshrined in +Makar's heart as the most sacred document in the entire literature of +the struggle. But race pride was contrary to the teachings of the +movement; so he not only kept these sentiments to himself, but tried to +suppress them in his own bosom. + + * * * * * + +In the evening Pavel took two young cavalry officers of his acquaintance +to the house of a retired major where a revolutionary meeting was to be +held. They found the major's drawing room sparkling with military +uniforms. The gathering was made up of eight officers, two men in +citizen's clothes, and one woman, the dark long-necked hostess. + +Two cheap lithographs, one of General Suvoroff and the other of the +reigning monarch, occupied the centre of the best wall, in jarring +disharmony with the refined and somewhat Bohemian character of the rest +of the room. The two portraits had been put there recently, to bear +witness to the political "reliability" of the house. The hostess +presided over a pile of yellow aromatic tobacco, rolling cigarettes for +her guests and smoking incessantly herself. An idiotic-looking +man-servant and a peasant girl fresh from the country kept up a supply +of tea, zwiebacks and preserves. Every time they appeared the hostess, +whose seat commanded the door, would signal to the company. She did it +rather perfunctorily, however, the revolutionary discussion proceeding +undisturbed. The cultured, bookish Russian of the assemblage was Greek +to the two servants. They talked of the three executions. + +Presently two other civilians were announced. + +"At last!" the hostess said, getting up from her pile of tobacco in a +flutter. + +The two newcomers were both above medium height, of solid build and +ruddy-faced; but here their similarity of appearance ceased. One of them +looked the image of social refinement and elegance, while the clothes +and general aspect of the other bespoke a citified, prosperous peasant. +His rough top-boots, the red woolen belt round his coat and the rather +coarse tint of his florid complexion, like his full Russian beard, +proclaimed the son of the unenlightened classes. He was taller than his +companion and remarkably well-built, with a shock of dark brown hair +thrown back from a high prominent forehead and regular features. He was +introduced to the gathering as Zachar. He and the stylish-looking man by +his side whose revolutionary nickname was "My Lord," conveyed the +effect of a bright, shrewd tradesman and a high-class lawyer bent on +some legal business. + +"If we are late, blame this guide of mine, not me," Zachar said to the +hostess, in a deep, rather harsh baritone, pointing at his companion. +"It turned out that he did not know the place very well himself. There +is a pilot for you." He accepted a glass of tea in a silver holder and +during the ensuing small talk the room rang with his merriment. His +jests were commonplace, but his Russian and all he said betrayed the man +of education. The tradesman's costume was his disguise, and if it became +him so well it was because his parents were moujiks. Born in serfdom but +brought up as a nobleman at the expense of his former master, this +university-bred peasant--a case of extreme rarity--for whom the +gendarmes were searching in connection with a bold attempt to blow up an +imperial train, loomed in the minds of the revolutionists as the most +conspicuous figure of their movement. + +"And how is my young philosopher?" he said to Pavel. "I was at your +place this morning, but found you out, Pasha." + +"I'll see you later on," Pavel said dryly. "Philosopher" referred to the +nature of the studies which Pavel's mother thought him to be pursuing. +There was a touch of patronage in the way Zachar used the word, and +Pavel resented it. + +As the gathering began to lapse into a graver mood the conversation was +expectantly left to Zachar, who by degrees accepted the role of the +principal speaker of the evening. That he relished this role and was +fond of a well turned phrase became apparent at once, but the impression +soon wore off. He compelled attention. + +"The practice of nations being inherited like furniture or chickens has +been out of date for centuries," he said in the course of a ferocious +attack on the existing adjustment of things. "But our party does not +demand full justice at once. The Will of the People is not +inconsiderate. We are willing to project ourselves into the position of +an old chap with whom the love of power has been bred in the bone. All +our party does demand, as a first step, is some regard for the rights of +the individual; of those rights without which the word civilisation is +of a piece with that puerile sort of hypocrisy as our late war with +Turkey, when the ambitious old fellow in his unquenchable thirst for +territory sent his subjects to die for the liberty of Bulgarians so that +their own children at home might be plunged into more abject slavery +than ever. + +"The government knows, of course, that its days are numbered and that it +is only cowardice and incapacity for concerted action which make its +brief respite possible. To retreat honourably, before it is too late, to +yield to the stern voice of the revolution under some specious +pretext--this is the step indicated by the political situation, but then +this is not what the ambitious oldster is after. Is there any wonder he +has lost his head? So much the better for the revolution. One or two +decisive blows and the government will topple over. Thanks to the +splendid army section of the Will of the People, on the one hand, and to +our powerful Workingmen's Section, on the other, one hundred resolute +men will be enough to seize the Winter Palace, to cut off all egress, +arrest the new Czar and, amid the general confusion following the death +of the old tyrant, proclaim a provisional government. What a glorious +opportunity to serve one's country!" + +His speech lasted an hour and a half. Most of his hearers were recent +converts, and these the matter-of-fact tone of his utterances took by +storm. The Third Section had heard of him as an irresistible agitator. +So he was, and the chief secret of his success lay--despite an effect of +conscious floridity and bravado--in a sincere depth of conviction +manifested by a volcanic vehemence of delivery. His speeches took it for +granted that Russia was at the threshold of a great historical change +and that his organisation was going to play a leading part in that +change. He gathered particular assurance from the fact that the "army +section" that had been formed by his efforts included several officers +of the court guard whose number he hoped to increase. These court +officers it was whom his imagination pictured as "cutting off all +egress" at the Winter Palace. The funds of his party included +contributions from some high sources. Things seemed to be coming the +"Will of the People's" way. As he spoke his strong physique seemed to be +aflame with contagious passion, sweeping along audience and speaker. The +harshness of his mighty baritone was gone; his peasant face was +beautiful. Words like "party," "citizen," "National Assembly," are +winged with the glamour of forbidden fruit in Russia, and when Zachar +uttered these words, in accents implying that these things were as good +as realised, his audience was enravished. To all of which, in the +present instance, should be added the psychological effect of a group of +dashing army officers, all members of the nobility, reverently listening +to an address by a peasant. He struck one as a giant of energy and +courage, of nervous vitality as well as of bodily strength. He had the +stuff of a political leader in him. Under favourable conditions he would +have left his mark as one of the strong men of the nineteenth century. +He carried people along current-fashion rather than magnetised them. + +Pavel was the next speaker, but the outraged sense of justice which was +the keynote of his impassioned plea, coming as it did upon the heels of +Zachar's peremptory and matter-of-course declarations, sounded out of +date. + +"Oh, it takes an idiot to talk after you, Zachar," he said, breaking off +in the middle of a sentence. "One feels like being up and doing things, +not talking. I wonder why we don't start for the Winter Palace, at +once." + +"That's the way I feel, too," chimed in a very young cavalry officer, +while two older men in brilliant uniforms, were grasping Zachar each by +one hand. The long-necked hostess was brushing the tears from her eyes +and calling herself "fool," for joy. + +An artillery officer with bad teeth of whom Pavel could not think +without thinking of the rheumatism of which that revolutionist had once +complained to him, drew his sword fiercely, the polished steel flaming +in the bright light of the room, as he said: + +"By Jove!" + +"Look at him! Look at him!" Zachar shouted. + +"Bridle your passions, old boy," Pavel put in. + +A minute or two later he called the orator into the next room and handed +him what looked like a package of tobacco. + +Zachar was in high feather over the success of his speech and loath to +leave the atmosphere of adoration that surrounded him here; but an +important engagement forced him to take his departure. + + * * * * * + +A quarter of an hour's ride in a tramcar and a short walk through the +moonlit streets brought him to a deserted corner in the vicinity of the +Winter Palace, where he was met by a man dressed like an artisan, as +tall as himself, but slimmer of girth, and the two went on trudging +along the snow-encrusted sidewalk together. The other man had an +expressive sickly face which the pallid glare of the moonlight gave a +ghastly look. + +"How is your health?" Zachar asked. + +"Bad," the sickly looking man answered, holding out his hand into which +Zachar put the package of tobacco, saying: + +"See if it isn't too heavy for a quarter of a pound." + +"It is, rather, but it'll pass," the other replied, weighing the package +in his hand and then putting it into his pocket. Buried in the tobacco +was a small quantity of dynamite. + +"It's too bad you are not feeling well." + +"Yes, my nerves are playing the devil with me. The worst of it is that I +have got to keep the stuff under my pillow when I sleep. That gives me +headaches." + +"I shouldn't wonder. The evaporations of that stuff do that as a rule. +But can't you find another place for it?" + +"Not for the night. They might go through my trunk then. They are apt to +come in at any time. Oh, those surprise visits of theirs keep my +wretched nerves on edge all the time." + +While the gendarmerie and the police knew him to be a leader among the +revolutionary workmen of the capital and were hunting for him all over +the city, this man, whose name was Stepan Khaltourin, had for the past +few months been making his home, under the name of Batushkoff, in the +same building as the Czar, in the Winter Palace, where his work as a +varnisher was highly valued. He was a self-taught mechanic, unusually +well-read and clear-headed. Of retiring disposition and a man of few +words, with an iron will under a bashful and extremely gentle manner, +he was one of the prominent figures of the Will of the People, having +been driven to terrorism by the senseless persecutions which he had met +at the hands of the authorities in his attempts to educate some of his +fellow-workmen. He now lodged, together with other mechanics, in +the basement of the Winter Palace, with only one room--the +guard-room--between the ceiling over his head and the floor of the +Imperial dining hall. Indeed, the frequent raids which a colonel at the +head of a group of gendarmes had been making upon that basement since +the seizure of "Alexandre's" diagram were largely a matter of display +and red tape. There was more jingling of spurs and flaunting of +formidable looking moustaches than actual searching or watching. Nowhere +was the incapacity of Russian officialdom illustrated more glaringly +than it was in the very home of the Czar. The bold Terrorist for whom +the police were looking high and low had found little difficulty in +securing employment here, and one of the first things that had attracted +his attention in the place was the prevailing state of anarchy and +demoralisation he found in it. Priceless gems and relics were scattered +about utterly unguarded; stealing was the common practice of the court +servants, and orgies at which these regaled their friends from the +outside world upon wines from the imperial cellars were a nightly +occurrence. Since Alexandre's arrest the vigilance of the court +gendarmes had been greatly increased, so that no servant could enter the +palace without being searched; yet Khaltourin contrived to smuggle in a +small piece of dynamite every evening, thus gradually accumulating the +supply that was needed for the terrible work of destruction he was +preparing. + +As to his position within the palace, he played his role so well that he +was the favourite of gendarmes and servants alike, often hearing from +them stories of the Nihilists and of the great plot to blow up the +dining hall that was supposed to have been nipped in the bud. + +"Well, how is that old gendarme of yours?" Zachar inquired. "Still +teaching you manners?" + +"Yes," Khaltourin answered with a smile. "I am getting sick of his +attentions, though. But there is something back of them, it appears. +What do you think he's after? Why, he has a marriageable daughter, so he +has taken it into his head to make a son-in-law of me." + +"Ho-ho-ho-ho!" Zachar exploded, restraining a guffaw. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE CZAR'S ESCAPE. + + +On Tuesday, February 17th, at about six o'clock in the evening, Pavel +and Makar were sauntering through the streets of the Vassili Island. +Their conversation languished. While indoors they had had another +discussion of Makar's scheme, a heart-to-heart talk in which Pavel +showed signs of yielding; and now that they were out in the snow-dappled +night they were experiencing that feeling of embarrassment which is the +aftermath of sentimental communion between two men. When they reached +the Neva, Pavel cast a glance across, in the direction of the Winter +Palace. The frozen river looked infinitely wider than it was. Dotted +with lamps and crossed by streams of home-bound humanity, it lay vast, +gorgeous, uncanny--a white plain animated with mysterious brightness and +mysterious motion. The main part of the capital, on the Palace side of +the Neva, was a world of gloom starred with myriads and myriads of +lights, each so distinct that one almost felt tempted to count them; all +this seemingly as far away as the gold-dotted sky overhead. Makar was +huddling himself in his grey military cloak, his bare hands loosely +thrust into its sleeves, looking at nothing. Pavel, his furred coat +unbuttoned, gazed across the Neva. + +"Come on," the medical student urged, knocking one foot against the +other. "It's too cold to be tramping around like this." + +"One moment," Pavel responded, impatiently. He had been visiting this +point at the same hour every day for the past week or two. Makar, who +did not know of it, relapsed into his revery. + +Suddenly there came a dull rolling crash. It burst from the other side, +and as Pavel and Makar looked across the river they saw that the lights +of the Winter Palace which had been burning a minute ago, were out, +leaving a great patch of darkness. The human stream paused. Then came a +rush of feet on all sides. + +"It's in the Palace," Boulatoff whispered; and seizing his companion's +hand at his side he pressed it with furious strength. + + * * * * * + +The next day the newspapers were allowed to state that the previous +evening, as the Czar and a royal guest were about to enter the dining +hall through one door and the other members of the imperial family +through another, a terrific explosion had occurred, making a hole in the +floor ten feet long and six wide; that eleven inmates of the guard room, +which was directly under the dining hall, were killed and fifty-seven +injured, the Czar's narrow escape having been due to an accidental delay +of the dinner. The explosion had shattered a number of windows and blown +out the gas, leaving the palace in complete darkness. Traces of an +improvised dynamite mine had been discovered in the basement. Three +artisans employed in the palace were arrested, but their innocence was +established, while a fourth man, a varnisher named Batushkoff, had +disappeared. Now that Batushkoff was gone the Third Section learned that +he was no other than Stepan Khaltourin, one of the active +revolutionists its agents were looking for. + +One week after the explosion the Czar signed a decree which practically +placed the government in the hands of a Supreme Executive Commission--a +body especially created to cope with the situation and whose head, Count +Loris-Melikoff, was invested with all but the powers of a regent. Count +Melikoff was neither a Slav nor of noble birth. He was the son of an +Armenian merchant. He was a new figure in St. Petersburg, and when his +carriage passed along the Neva Prospect his swarthy face with its +striking Oriental features were pointed out with expressions of +perplexity. Although one of the two principal heroes of the late war +with Turkey and recently a governor-general of Kharkoff, he was looked +upon as an upstart. The extraordinary powers so suddenly vested in him +took the country by surprise. + +He was known for the conciliatory policy toward the Nihilists at which +he had aimed while he was governor-general of Kharkoff. Accordingly, his +promotion to what virtually amounted to dictatorship was universally +interpreted as a sign of weakening on the part of Alexander II. Indeed, +Melikoff's first pronunciamento from the lofty altitude of his new +office struck a note of startling novelty. He spoke of the Czar as +showing "increased confidence in his people" and of "public cooperation" +as "the main force capable of assisting the government in its effort to +restore a normal flow of official life"--utterances that were construed +into a pledge of public participation in affairs of state, into an +unequivocal hint at representative legislation. + +Loris-Melikoff was one of the ablest statesmen Russia had ever produced. +He was certainly the only high official of his time who did not try to +prove his devotion to the throne by following in the trodden path of +repression. He knew that Russia could not be kept from joining in the +march of Western civilisation and he was not going to serve his personal +interests by pretending that it could. Instead, he hoped to strengthen +his position by winning the Czar over to his own moderate liberalism, by +reconciling him to the logic of history. But the logic of history could +best have been served by prompt and vigorous action, while the chief of +the Supreme Executive Commission was rather slow to move. Nor, indeed, +was he free from interference. The Czar was still susceptible to the +influence of his unthinking relatives and of his own vindictive nature. + +Chaos marked the situation. Loris-Melikoff's first week in office was +signalised by the most cruel act in the entire history of the +government's struggle against Nihilism. A gymnasium boy, seventeen years +old (a Jew), was hanged in Kieff for carrying a revolutionary +proclamation. The dictator's professions of liberalism were branded as +hypocrisy. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A MYSTERIOUS ARREST. + + +A young man had been seized with seditious publications. It was the +first political arrest in Miroslav, and the report was spreading in a +maze of shifting versions. This much seemed certain: the prisoner +pretended to be a deaf-mute and so far the gendarmes and the procureur +had failed to disclose his identity. The local newspaper dared not +publish the remotest allusion to the matter. + +Countess Anna Nicolayevna Varova (Varoff) first heard the news from her +brother-in-law, the governor, and although the two belonged to that +exceptional minority which usually discussed topics of this character in +their normal voices, yet it was in subdued tones that the satrap +broached the subject. Anna Nicolayevna offered to send for Pavel, who +had recently arrived from St. Petersburg, after an absence of three +years, but the governor checked her. + +"Never mind, Annette," he said, impatiently, "I've dropped in for a +minute or two, in passing, don't you know. He called on me yesterday, +Pasha. Quite a man. Tell him he must look in again and let me see how +clever he is. Quite a man. How time does fly!" Then sinking his voice, +he asked: "Have you heard of the fellow they've bagged? One of those +youngsters who are scaring St. Petersburg out of its wits, you know." + +He gave a laugh and fell to blinking gravely. + +"What do you mean, George? Did the gendarmes catch a Nihilist?" she +asked, in dismay. "Did they? Bless me! That's all that's wanted. If +there is one there must be a whole nest of them." She made a gesture of +horror--"But who is he, what is he?" + +"That I know no more than you do." + +"Well, it's too bad, it's really too bad. I thought Miroslav was immune +from that plague at least." And seeing his worried look she added: "I +hope it's nothing serious, George." + +Governor Boulatoff shook his head. "I don't think it is. Although you +never can tell nowadays. You never can tell," he repeated, blinking +absently. "The Armenian doesn't seem to be cleaning those fellows out +quite so rapidly as one thought he would, does he? They are playing the +devil with things, that's what they are doing." "One" and "they" +referred to the Emperor and his advisers. + +"Pooh, they'll weary of that parvenu, it's only a matter of time," she +consoled him. + +The old man proceeded to quote from Loris-Melikoff's recent +declarations, which the countess had heard him satirise several times +before. "'In the cooperation of the public,'" he declaimed theatrically, +"'lies the main force capable of assisting the government in its effort +to restore a normal flow of official life.' Do you understand what all +this jugglery means? That we are knuckling down to a lot of ragamuffins. +It means an official confession that the 'flow of official life' has +been checked by a gang of rascally college boys. 'The public is the main +force capable of assisting the government!' Charming, isn't it? Might +as well invite 'the public' to be so kind and elect representatives, +deputies, or what you may call 'em, start a parliament and have it over +with." + +Anna Nicolayevna made another attempt to bring the conversation back to +the political prisoner, but her visitor was evidently fighting shy of +the topic. + +"Birch-rods, a good, smart flogging, that's what the public needs," he +resumed, passionately gnashing his teeth, in response to his own +thoughts. + +"Oh, don't say that, George. After all, one lives in the nineteenth +century." + +But this only spurred him on. + +The arrest having been ordered from St. Petersburg, the implication was +that the presence of the revolutionist in town had escaped the attention +of the local authorities. So Governor Boulatoff, who had had no +experience in cases of this kind, wondered whether the affair was not +likely to affect his own standing. Besides, the governor of Kharkoff had +recently been killed, and Boulatoff was asking himself whether the +arrest of the unknown man augured the end of his own peace of mind. This +he kept to himself, however, and having found some relief in +animadverting upon the policy of Loris-Melikoff he took leave. + + * * * * * + +The countess was left with a pang of sympathy for her brother-in-law. +Not that she had any clear idea of the political situation at which he +was forever scoffing and carping. She felt sure that his low spirits +were traceable to loneliness, and her compassion for him revived +heart-wringing memories of his dead wife, her sister. + +The young prince was out in the garden romping about with Kostia, his +half-brother, now a ten-year-old cadet on sick leave. Anna Nicolayevna +went to take a look at them through the open window of a rear room. The +garden was so jammed with fresh-tinted lilacs, so flooded with their +scent, that it seemed like an explosion of color and fragrance. Two +Germans were at work with picks and spades. From an invisible spot where +a new summer house was being constructed came sounds of sawing and +hammering, while the air near the window rang with a multitudinous +twitter of sparrows. Pavel was trying to force Kostia into a +wheelbarrow, the boy kicking and struggling silently, and a huge shaggy +dog barking at Pavel ferociously. + +"Come in, Pasha. I want to speak to you," said Anna Nicolayevna. + +The return indoors was a race, in which the gigantic dog took part. The +convalescent little cadet was beaten. + +"Wait till I get well," he said. + +"Wait nothing. Your excellency will be rolling along like a water-melon +all the same. Good-bye, Monsieur le Water-melon!" + +Presently Pavel stood before his mother, mopping his flushed, laughing +face. + +"Do you remember his 'express trains' in the garden?" he said. "Now it +is beneath his dignity, to be sure." He was always trying to prove to +himself that the present Kostia and the five-year-old boy he used to +fondle five years ago were one and the same person. + +"He's right," said the countess. "He's a baby no longer. It's you who +are acting like one. Uncle has been here. He was in a hurry, so I didn't +send for you." Her serious-minded, intellectual son inspired her with a +certain feeling of timidity. She had not the courage to bring up the +subject of the political arrest. Her mind was so vague on matters of +this kind, while Pavel was apparently so well informed and so profound, +she was sure of making a poor showing. So she told herself that it was +not a proper topic to discuss in a well-ordered family and kept her own +counsel. + +"I didn't know he was here," he said. + +"Poor man! he seems to be feeling lonely." + +Pavel made no reply. + +"Why, don't you think he does?" + +"What matters it whether I do or not," he said, lightly. + +"You haven't a bit of heart, Pasha." + +He would not be drawn into conversation, treating everything she said +with an inscrutable, somewhat patronising flippancy that nettled her. At +last he said he was going out. + +"'Looking up old chums' again?" she asked. "And does it mean that you +are going to dine out once more?" + +"I'll try not to, mother," he answered, with a fond smile in his bright, +aggressive eyes. + +His small slender figure, beautifully erect, and his upward-tending, +frank features haunted her long after he left. She felt like a jealous +bride. Otherwise he kept her thoughts tinged with sunshine. A great +attachment on quite new terms had sprung up between mother and son since +his arrival. At the same time he seemed to belong to a world which she +was at a loss to make out. Nor did he appear disinclined to talk of his +life in St. Petersburg--a subject upon which she was continually plying +him with questions. The trouble was that the questions that beset her +mind could no more be formulated than a blind man can formulate his +curiosity as to colour. Moreover, all these questions seemed to come +crowding upon her when Pavel was away and to vanish the moment she set +eyes on him. She told herself that he belonged to a different +generation from hers, that it was the everlasting case of "fathers and +sons." But this only quickened her jealousy of the "sons" and her +despair at being classed with the discarded generation. And the keener +her jealousy, the deeper was her interest in Pasha. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A BEWILDERING ENCOUNTER. + + +When Pavel was in St. Petersburg Anna Nicolayevna had missed him only +occasionally. Now that he was with her his absences were a continuous +torture to her. On the present occasion she sought diversion in a visit +to Princess Chertogoff where she expected to hear something about the +mysterious prisoner. Princess Chertogoff was a lame, impoverished +noblewoman whose daughter was married to the assistant-procureur. In +higher circles she was looked down upon as a social outcast, so that +Anna Nicolayevna's visits to her had a surreptitious character and +something of the charm of forbidden fruit. Pavel's mother was fond of +the stir her appearance produced in houses of this kind. The curious +part of it was that the impecunious princess was one of the very few +persons in the world whose presence irritated her. It seemed as though +this irritation had a peculiar attraction for her. + +It was an early hour in the afternoon. She was received in the vestibule +by Helene, the assistant-procureur's wife, with an outburst of kisses +and caresses which had something to do with the young woman's expecting +to become a mother. Rising in the background was the hostess, Lydia +Grigorievna Chertogova (Chertogoff) and her gorgeous crutches. She was +large, dark, and in spite of her made-over gowns, imposingly handsome. +Aware of the fantastic majesty which these crutches gave her stalwart +form, she paraded her defect as she did her beautiful dark eyes. At this +moment it seemed as though the high-polished ebony crutches joined her +in beaming at the sight of the distinguished visitor. Helene, a small +woman of twenty-four, usually compact as a billiard ball, was beginning +to resemble an over-ripe apple. + +When the three women found themselves in the drawing room Lydia +Grigorievna lost no time in turning the conversation on the arrested +Nihilist. Her son-in-law had carefully abstained from opening his mouth +on the subject, yet she talked about it authoritatively, with an +implication of reserved knowledge of still graver import, but Helene +gave her away. + +"Woldemar would not speak about it," she complained, reverently. "'An +affair of state,' he said. You can't get a single word out of him." She +exulted in the part he was playing as an exterminator of the enemies of +the Czar, and in the air-castles she was building as to the promotion to +which the present case was to pave his way. + +"But what do they want, those scamps?" Lydia Grigorievna resumed, in +soft, pampered accents. "Would they have us live without a Czar? I +should have them cut to pieces, the rogues. Is it possible that the +government should be powerless to get rid of them? To think of a handful +of striplings keeping cabinet ministers in a perpetual state of terror." + +"Oh, nobody is really afraid of them," Helene retorted, holding her face +to the breeze which came in through an open window. + +"But your husband is not yet a cabinet minister, dear," her mother said +with a smile toward the countess. + +"Oh, you're always suspecting me of something or other, _mamman_. I was +not thinking of Woldemar at all." + +The charm of her presence, the appealing charm of a pretty young woman +about to become a mother, added itself to the tenderness and mystery of +spring. Lydia Grigorievna addressed another smile to the countess, but +Anna Nicolayevna dropped her glance. The princess went on raging at the +revolutionists. In reality, however, that handful of striplings who +"kept cabinet ministers in a perpetual state of terror" had stirred up a +curiosity in her that sprang from anything but indignation or contempt. +She was hankering for a specimen of their literature, of those +publications the very handling of which was apt to bring death. Her +thirst in this direction was all the keener because she felt sure that +some of the Nihilist papers that had been confiscated at the arrest of +the unknown man were upstairs in her son-in-law's desk. + +"A constitution may be all very well in Germany or France," she said. +"This is Russia, not Germany or France or England, thank God. Yet those +wretches will go around stirring up discontent. On my way home from +Moscow last winter I heard a passenger say that if we had less bribery +and more liberty and popular education we would be as good as any nation +in Western Europe. I knew at once he was a Nihilist. You can tell one by +the first word he utters. I confess I was afraid to sit near him. He had +grey side-whiskers, but maybe they were just stuck on. Oh, I should show +them no mercy." + +She was all flushed and ill at ease. She received no encouragement. Her +sugared enunciation and the false ring of what she said grated on her +hearer's nerves. Anna Nicolayevna listened in silence. The lame princess +was a sincere woman coated with a layer of insincerity. But the +countess thought her the embodiment of affectation and hated her, +bizarre beauty, enunciation, altered gowns, crutches and all. + +Lydia Grigorievna was interrupted by the appearance of the +assistant-procureur himself. He was tall and frail with a long straight +straw-coloured mane and pontifical gestures. His figure made one think +of length in the abstract. As you looked at him he seemed to be +continually growing in height. Helene had fallen in love with him +because he resembled the baron in a play she had seen in Moscow. + +"I've just looked in to bid you good afternoon, countess," he said. "I +saw your carriage through the window. But unfortunately--_business +before pleasure_." It was one of two or three English phrases which he +kept for occasions of this character and which he mispronounced with +great self-confidence. + +When Anna Nicolayevna got into the street she felt as though she had +emerged from the suffocating atmosphere of some criminal den. In the May +breeze, however, and at sight of the river her spirits rose. She +dismissed her carriage. When she reached the macadamised bank and caught +the smell of the water it was borne in upon her afresh that it was +spring. She had passed this very spot, in a sleigh only a short while +ago, it seemed. Lawns and trees had been covered with snow then; all had +been stiff with the stiffness of death; whereas now all was tenderly +alive with verdure and bloom, and wild-flowers smiled upon her at every +turn. Here it struck her as though spring had just been born; born in +full attire overnight. Flushed and radiant, with her rusty chin in the +air and her flat chest slightly thrown out, spinning her parasol, she +was briskly marching along, a broad streak of water to the right of her, +a row of orchards to the left. The river beamed. From somewhere +underneath she heard the clanking of chains of lumber-horses, +accompanied by the yell of boys. The greased wooden screws of a receding +cable-ferry were squirming in the air like two erect snakes of silver; +the brass buttons of a soldier-passenger burned like a column of flames. +All this and the lilac-laden breeze and Anna Nicolayevna's soul were +part of something vast, swelling with light and joy. But the breath of +spring is not all joy. Nature's season of love is a season of yearning. +One feels like frisking and weeping at once. Spring was with us a year +ago, but the interval seems many years. It is like revisiting one's home +after a long absence: the scenes of childhood are a source of delight +and depression at once. It is like hearing a long forgotten song: the +melody, however gay, has a dismal note in it. Anna Nicolayevna had not +been out many minutes when she began to feel encompassed by an immense +melancholy to which her heart readily responded. There was a vague +longing in the clear blue sky, in the gleaming water, in the patches of +grass on either side of the public promenade, in the distant outlines +across the river, but above all in the overpowering freshness of the +afternoon air. The travail of an unhappy soul seemed to be somewhere +nearby. A look of loneliness came into her eyes. She was burning to see +Pavel, to lay bare her soul to him. + +When a passing artisan in top-boots and with glass buttons in his +waistcoat reverently took off his flat cap she returned the salute with +motherly fervour and slackened her pace to a more dignified gait. "I'm +respected and loved by the people," she mentally boasted to Pavel. + +Arrived at the bridge, she paused to hand a twenty-copeck piece to a +blind beggar who sat on the ground by the tollman's booth. He apparently +recognised her by the way her gloved hand put the coin in his hand. She +had given him alms as long as she could remember, and usually he made no +more impression on her than the lamp-posts she passed. This time, +however, it came back to her how her mother used to send her out of +their carriage with some money for him. She paused to look at him and to +listen to his song. She recalled him as a man of thirty or forty with +thick flaxen hair. Now he was gray and bald. "Great heavens! how time +does fly!" she exclaimed in her heart, feeling herself an old woman. The +blind man seemed to be absorbed in his song. All blind beggars look +alike and they all seem to be singing the same doleful religious tune, +yet this man, as he sat with his eyes sealed and his head leaned against +the parapet, gave her a novel sensation. He was listening to his own +tones, as if they came from an invisible world, like his own, but one +located somewhere far away. + +Anna Nicolayevna gave him a ruble and passed on. Followed by the +beggar's benedictions, she made to turn into the street which formed the +continuation of the bridge, when an approaching flour truck brought her +to a halt. Besides several sacks of meal the waggon carried a cheap old +trunk, and seated between the trunk and the driver was--Pavel; Pavel +uncouthly dressed in the garb of an artisan. His rudimentary beard was +covered with dust; his legs, encased in coarse grimy topboots, were +dangling in the air. The visor of his flat cap was pushed down over his +eyes, screening them from the red afternoon sun which sparkled and +glowed in the glass buttons of his vest. It certainly was Pavel. Anna +Nicolayevna was panic-stricken. She dared not utter his name. + +The toll paid, the truck moved on. The countess followed her son with +her eyes, until a cab shut him out of view, and then she remained +standing for some time, staring at the cab. "What does it all mean?" she +asked herself with sickening curiosity. Finally her eye went to the +water below. She gazed at its rippling stretches of black and masses of +shattered silver; at a woman slapping a heap of wash with a wash-beater, +at a long raft slowly gliding toward the bridge. "Is he disguised? What +does it all mean? Was it really Pasha?" + +Doubt dawned in her mind. In her eagerness to take another look at the +man on the truck she raised her eyes. After waiting for some moments she +saw the waggon with the two men as it appeared and forthwith disappeared +at the other end of the bridge. The thought of the arrested man stunned +her. Was Pavel a Nihilist? The image of her son had assumed a new, a +forbidding expression. + +The revolutionists moved about on the verge of martyrdom, and as the +mere acquaintance with one of their number meant destruction, the +imagination painted them as something akin to living shadows, as beings +whose very touch brought silence and darkness. People dared not utter +the word "Nihilist" or "revolutionist" aloud. Anna Nicolayevna belonged +to the privileged few, but at this moment she dreaded so much as to +think of her son by these ghastly names. It now appeared to Anna +Nicolayevna that all through her call at Lydia Grigorievna's she had had +a presentiment of an approaching calamity. She took the first cab that +came along. + +"As fast as you can drive," she said. + +The moment Anna Nicolayevna got home she inquired whether Pavel was in +his room, and when the porter said that his Highness had not been back +since he had left, in the morning, a fresh gust of terror smote her +heart and brain. She stole into his room. On the table lay a German +pamphlet on Kant and a fresh number of the _Russian Messenger_, the +ultra-conservative magazine published in Moscow. In several places the +leaves were cut. A Nihilist was the last person in the world one would +expect to read this organ of Panslavists. What Anna Nicolayevna did not +know was that the cut pages of the conservative magazine, which Pavel +had received from St. Petersburg the day before, contained a hidden +revolutionary message. Here and there a phrase, word, or a single +letter, was marked, by means of an inkstain, abrasion or what looked +like the idle penciling of a reader, these forming half a dozen +consecutive sentences. + +Anna Nicolayevna was perplexed and her perplexity gave her a new thrill +of hope. She was in a quiver of impatience to see her son and have it +all out. + +The dinner hour came round and Pavel was not there. She could not eat. +Every little while she paused to listen for a ring of the door bell. She +sent a servant to his room to see if he had not arrived unheard. He had +not. + +The other people at table were Kostia, in huge red shoulder-straps which +made his well-fitting uniform look too large for him; Kostia's old +tutor, a powerful looking German with a bashful florid face, and the +countess' own old governess, an aged Frenchwoman with a congealed smile +on her bloodless lips. This restlessness of the countess when Pavel was +slow in coming was no news to them, but this time she seemed to feel +particularly uneasy. Silence hung over them. The Frenchwoman's dried-up +smile turned to a gleam of compassion. The German ate timidly. This +man's services had practically ceased when Kostia entered the cadet +corps, but Anna Nicolayevna retained him in the house for his quiet +piety. She had a feeling that so far as the intelligent classes were +concerned the simple forms of Protestantism were more compatible with +religious sincerity than were the iron-bound formalities of her native +church. So, with her heart thirsting for spiritual interest, she found +intense pleasure in her theological conversations with this well-read, +narrow-minded, honest Lutheran, whose religious convictions she envied. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A GENDARME'S SISTER. + + +When Pavel told his mother that he was going out he expected to meet +Makar, who had been in Miroslav for the past four days. Once again he +was going to plead with him to give up his scheme. The affair kept Pavel +in bad humour, but that morning his mind was occupied by the thought +that there was an interesting meeting in store for him. In the evening +he was to make the acquaintance of Clara Yavner, the heroine of the +Pievakin "demonstration." + +On his way down the spacious corridor he was stopped by Onufri, his +cheeks still hollower and his drooping moustache still longer and +considerably greyer than of yore. Pavel had once tried to make a convert +of him, but found him "too stupid for abstract reasoning." Onufri was +polishing the floor. As Pavel came past he faced half way about and gave +him a stern look from under his bushy eyebrows. + +"They've pinched a gentleman, the blood-guzzlers." Saying which he fell +to dancing on his foot-cushions again. + +"What do you mean?" Pavel asked, turning white as he paused. + +"You know what I mean, sir. You know you do," answered Onufri, going on +with his work. + +"Is it true? Who made the arrest? Gendarmes?" + +"That's it. I wouldn't bother your Highness if the police'd nabbed a +common crook, would I?" + +The servant bent on his young master a long look of sympathetic +reproach, adding under his breath: + +"You had better give it all up, sir. Better let it go to the devil." + +"Give up what? What on earth are you prating about, Onufri?" + +A few minutes later, while Pavel was destroying some papers in his room, +the door swung open and in came Onufri. The old man burst into tears and +dropped to his knees. + +"Take pity, sir," he wailed, kissing Pavel's fingers. "You've played +with fire long enough, sir. If they put you in prison, the murderers, +and sent you away it would kill her Highness, your mother." + +"Get up, Onufri. I have no patience with you just now, really I +haven't." + +"It's bad enough when your Highness takes chances in another town, but +if you're mixed up in this here thing, sir----" + +"I'm not mixed up 'in this here thing.' Don't bother me. Come, get up. +Up with you, now. There is a good fellow!" + +The old hussar obeyed distressedly. + +Instead of going to the place where he expected to see Makar, Pavel went +to the house of Major Safonoff, the gendarme officer, an +uncomfortable-looking frame building across the river. As he approached +it, Masha, the major's sister, who stood at a second story window at +that moment, apparently waiting for somebody, burst out beckoning to him +and stamping her feet. Her excited gesticulations drew the attention of +a knife-grinder and two little girls. Pavel dropped his eyes. "She is a +perfect idiot," he said to himself in a rage, "and I am another one. The +idea of taking up with such a creature!" + +"Didn't you torture me!" she greeted him on the staircase. "I thought my +heart was going to snap. Don't be uneasy. I have dismissed our servant. +There is nobody around." When they reached the low-ceiled parlor, she +sank her voice and said solemnly, yet with a certain note of triumph: +"He was arrested at four o'clock yesterday on the railway tracks. The +gendarme office had information that he was in the habit of taking walks +there. I happened to be away--think of it! At a time like that I was +away. Else I should have let you know at once, of course. Anyhow, he's +there." + +"You say it as if it was something to rejoice in," Pavel remarked, +disguising his rage. "It's quite a serious matter, Maria Gavrilovna." + +Mlle. Safonoff stared. "But we'll get him out. Why, are you afraid we +mayn't? I see you're depressed and that makes me miserable, too. Really +it does." + +"Do I look depressed? Well, I must confess I rather am. It's no laughing +matter, Maria Gavrilovna," he said, flushing. + +"Oh, well, if you are going to talk like that. That is I myself haven't +the slightest doubt about it. Only you frighten me so. If this thing is +going to last another week it will drive me mad." Her childish eyes +shone with tears. "Why should you take such a gloomy view of it? I must +say it's cruel of you, Pavel Vassilyevich. Everything is just as I +expected. He is as good as free, I assure you." + +Pavel answered, by way of consoling himself as well as her: "Well, maybe +I do take it too hard. Our chances seem to be good, and--well, we must +get him out. That's all there is to it." + +"Of course we must. Now I like you, Boulatoff. We must and we will, and +when the story is published--oh, I do wish we could get out special +proclamations!--anyhow, won't it make a stir!" She paused and then +resumed, in a new burst of frankness, "I know what makes you uneasy +about me. The great trouble with me is my lack of tact, isn't it? If I +had that I would be all right. That's what worries you about me in this +affair, isn't it, now? You're afraid I may make a mess of the whole +business. I know you are. Well, and I don't blame you, either. The +Safonoffs have never been distinguished for their heads. When it happens +to be a matter of hearts, we hold our own, but brains, well--." She gave +a laugh. "I tell you what, Boulatoff, I'm afraid of you, and I don't +care to bear the brunt of this important affair. Anyhow, I want you to +keep an eye on me. I'll do all you want me to, but you must take the +responsibility off my shoulders, else I'll go crazy. What makes you +smile? You think I'm crazy already, don't you?" + +"I wasn't smiling at all. So far you have managed things beautifully. I +confess I'm getting impatient. Well, I do feel wretched, Maria +Gavrilovna." + +She grasped his hand, shook it silently and whispered: "Don't be uneasy. +We shall win." + +When Safonoff came home at the lunch hour he told of the excitement at +the gendarme office. His manner toward Boulatoff was a non-committal +mixture which seemed to say: "You and I understand each other perfectly, +don't we? Still, if you think you can get me to call a spade a spade or +to help you you are mistaken." + +His compact, well-fed figure had the shape of a plum. He was +perpetually mimicking somebody or chuckling and his speech was full of +gaps, many of his sentences being rendered in dumb show. + +"My chief may get in trouble for having ordered the arrest too soon," he +said. "We were to let the prisoner--" (he brandished his hand to +represent a man going around at large) "for some time, so as to let him +show us with whom he is acquainted. But my chief--" (he struck an +attitude meant to caricature a decrepit, coughing, old fellow) "was all +of a tremble for fear the canary-bird might take wing. You see he had +never arrested a political before. You should have seen our men when we +took that chap on the railroad track. They were more frightened than he, +I assure you, prince. They thought he was going to--" (he aimed an +imaginary dagger at Pavel and burst into laughter). "Monsieur Unknown is +certainly no coward whatever else he may be. You should have seen the +look of surprise and contempt he gave me!" + +Pavel beamed while Masha's face wore a pained expression. "It's time you +had left this nasty business of yours, Andrusha," she said. + +When Andrusha reached the assistant procureur's part in the case he +sketched off a pompous imbecile. There was no love lost between the +public attorney and the gendarme officers, so Safonoff described, with +many a gurgle of merriment, how, during the attempted examination of the +prisoner, Zendorf, the assistant procureur (he burlesqued an obeisance +as the epitome of snobbishness) had tried to impress his uniformed +rivals with his intellectual and social superiority. + +"You see, my chief is a rough and ready sort of customer. Whatever else +he may be, frills and fakes are not in his line. So he went right at it. +'Speak up,' he squeaked at the prisoner, 'speak up, or I'll have your +mouth opened for you.' So Zendorf called him gently to order and fixed +his dignified peepers at the prisoner. He expected to cast some sort of +spell over him, I suppose, but it was no go. As to me, I was just +choking. As bad luck would have it I took it into my head at that moment +that the best way to make that fellow talk would be to have his armpits +tickled till he roared. Well, I had to leave the room to have my giggle +out." + +Safonoff was indifferent to his sister's revolutionary ventures because +he never vividly realised the danger she incurred. His mind retained the +most lifelike impressions, but its sensitiveness was of the photographic +kind; it was confined to actual experiences. He had no imagination for +the future. He was an easy-going man, incapable of fear. People often +arrived at the conclusion that he was "a fool after all." But then there +are fools who are endowed with a keen perception and a lively sense of +character. + +Speaking of the warden of the jail, Safonoff impersonated a cringing, +hand-kissing, crafty time-server. He had never met a convert Jew or +convert Pole who was not an adventurer and an all-round knave, he said, +and Rodkevitch was the most typical convert Pole he had ever come +across. The sight of money took his breath away, gave him the vertigo, +made his eyes start from their sockets. Rustle a crisp paper ruble in +his ear and he will faint away. + +"He's a candidate for Siberia anyhow and he needs money to pull him out +of some of the roguish schemes he is tangled up in. The contractors who +furnish his prisoners sand for flour and garbage for potatoes are his +partners in some of his outside swindles also. Do you understand, +prince?" The question was put with special emphasis, which Pavel +interpreted as a direct hint at the possibility of bribing the warden. + +It occurred to Boulatoff that Makar's luggage was quite likely to +contain some incriminating papers or other things that might aggravate +the case. To fear this in view of Makar's notorious absent-mindedness +was quite reasonable. But this was not all. He had been bent upon making +his arrest as important in the eyes of the Third Section as possible, +and Pavel was almost certain he had left something in his lodgings on +purpose. "You never know what you are at with a crazy, obstinate +bull-dog like that," he thought in a qualm of anxiety. + +When Safonoff had gone Pavel wrote a note to his imprisoned friend +asking for the address of his lodgings. + +"Can you get this to him, and an answer brought back?" he demanded of +Mlle. Safonoff in a peremptory tone. + +"I think so. My aunt will probably get it through. I am almost sure of +it, in fact." + +"There you are. You're _almost_ sure. Was this enough to let a man put +himself in the hands of the Third Section?" + +Mlle. Safonoff hurried out of the house in dumb dismay. After an +interval of less than an hour, which to Pavel seemed a year, she burst +into the parlour, accompanied by an older woman, whom she introduced as +her aunt, Daria Stepanovna Shubeyko. Both were breathless with +excitement. They had the desired address, the sum Makar owed his +landlady and another note to the landlady. Pavel's heart swelled with +joy and gratitude, but he did not show it. + +"Very well," he said, with a preoccupied scowl. "And now for that trunk +of his." + +The two women went on to describe, continually interrupting each other, +their plans for setting Makar free, but Pavel checked them. + +"We'll discuss it all afterwards," he said. "What we need at this minute +is a coarse suit of clothes, something to make a fellow look like a +workman or porter. We must clear his room before his landlady has +notified the police of his disappearance." The costume was brought by +Masha. When Pavel emerged from the major's bedroom transformed into a +laborer, Masha's aunt applauded so violently that he could not resist +gnashing his teeth at her. + +"Excuse me, but I've never seen a real man of action before," she +pleaded. "Now I feel newly born, really I do. I tell you what, +Boulatoff, I'll go with you. In case of trouble I may be of some use, +you know. We can't afford to let an active man like you perish." + +"But then if you perish," Pavel answered gayly, "there won't be anybody +to arrange that escape." + +"That's true," she replied forlornly. She was a healthy, good-looking +woman with a smile so exultantly silly that Pavel could not bear to look +at it. Every time that smile of hers brightened her full-blooded face, +he dropped his eyes. + + * * * * * + +There was the risk of his being recognised by somebody in the street. +Then, too, Makar's lodgings might have been discovered by the police and +made a trap of. The errand was full of risks, but this only stimulated a +feeling in which Pavel's passion for this sort of adventure was coupled +with a desire to vindicate himself before his own conscience by sharing +in Makar's dangers. + +The trip was devoid of all adventure, however. Even his meeting with his +mother was lost on him. He was sincerely contemplating the blind beggar +at that moment. + +Makar's landlady was a garrulous Jewess. When she learned that her +lodger had been taken ill at the house of a friend and that the +workingman had been sent for his things and to pay the bill, she +launched out into an effusion of bad Russian that taxed Pavel's patience +sorely. She exacted the address of Makar's friend, so as to send the +patient some of her marvellous preserves. The prince left with the trunk +on his shoulder--an excellent contrivance for screening his face from +view--but it proved too heavy, and when he came across a truckman who +agreed to take him and his load part of the way to his destination he +was glad to be relieved of the burden. + +While he was in the next room, shedding his disguise, Masha's aunt +bombarded him with impatient shouts and giggles. When he had opened the +trunk at last she insisted upon helping him examine its contents, +whereupon she handled each article she lifted out as she might a holy +relic; and when the trunk proved to contain nothing of a compromising +quality even Pavel felt disappointed. Mme. Shubeyko overwhelmed him with +questions, one of which was: + +"Look here, Boulatoff, why shouldn't the people rise and put an end to +the rule of despotism at once? What on earth are we waiting for?" + +"If the people were all like you they would have done so long ago," he +answered, with a hearty laugh. He warmed to her in an amused way and +felt like calling her auntie; only that smile of hers continued to annoy +him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +UNDERGROUND MIROSLAV. + + +Pavel dined at the major's house. He was in high spirits, but the hour +of his expected meeting with the girl of the Pievakin demonstration was +drawing near, and his impatience was getting keener every minute. He +reached the place, a little house occupied by a government clerk named +Orlovsky and his mother, ahead of time. + +"Your name is Boulatoff, is it not?" asked the host, his square Slavic +nose curling up with the joy of his welcome. Then, crouching before the +absurdest looking samovar Pavel had ever seen, he explained that his +mother had gone to his sister's for the night, as she did very often to +avoid the noise of his gatherings. In the centre of a bare round table +lay an enormous loaf of rye bread and a great wedge of sugar, near which +stood an empty candy box, apparently used as a sugar bowl. Pavel divined +that at least one-half of Orlovsky's salary was spent on the tea, bread +and butter on which his guests regaled themselves while they talked +liberty. + +"I'm only a private of the revolution," Orlovsky said, trying to blow +two charcoals into flame until his face glowed like the coals and his +eyes looked bleared. "But if there is anything I can do command me." At +his instance the two addressed each other in the familiar diminutives of +their Christian names--"Pasha" and "Aliosha." While Aliosha was +struggling with his smoking samovar, Pasha set to work cutting up the +sugar. + +"Wait till you have seen our crowd," said Aliosha, flicking the open +side of an old top-boot at the samovar by way of bellows. "I tell you +Miroslav is destined to play a prominent part in the liberation of +Russia. We have some tip-top fellows and girls. Of course, we're mere +privates in the ranks of the revolution." + +But Pavel's mind was on the speaker's sackcoat of checkered grey, which +was so tight on him that his prominent thighs were bulging out and the +garment seemed on the point of bursting. The sight of it annoyed Pavel +in the same way as Mme. Shubeyko's smile had done, and he asked Orlovsky +why he should not unbutton himself, to which the other answered, half in +jest, half in earnest, that he was getting so fat that he was beginning +to look "like a veritable bourgeois, deuce take it." + +"But it makes a fellow uncomfortable to look at you," Pavel shouted, +irascibly. + +"Ah, but that's a question of personal liberty, old man," Orlovsky +returned in all seriousness. "What right have you, for instance, to +impose upon me rules as to how I am to wear my coat?" + +"That right which limits the liberty of one man by the liberty of other +men. But this is all foolishness, Aliosha. Upon my word it is. The days +of hair-splitting are dead and buried. There is plenty of work to +do--living, practical work." + +Orlovsky leaped up from his samovar, a fishy look in his eye, and +grasping Pavel's hand he pressed it hard and long. Pavel felt in the +presence of the most provincial Nihilism he had ever come across. + +Other members of the Circle came. They all knew the governor's nephew +by sight. Also that he was "a sympathiser," yet his presence here was a +stirring surprise to most of them, although they strove to conceal it. +One man, Orlovsky's immediate superior in office, shook Pavel's hand +with a grimace which seemed to say: "You're Prince Boulatoff and I am +only an ordinary government official, but then all titles and ranks will +soon go to smash." A Jewish gymnasium boy with two bubbling beads for +eyes made Pavel's acquaintance with a preoccupied air, as if in a hurry +to get down to more important business. His small, deep-seated eyes +spurted either merriment or gloom. Elkin had said there was not enough +of them to make one decent-sized eye, and dubbed him "Cyclops," which +had since been the boy's revolutionary nickname. + +Orlovsky's superior had a vast snow-white forehead that gave his face a +luminous, aureole-lit effect, but he was an incurable liar. He was one +of the most devoted members of the Circle, however, and recently he had +sold all his real estate, turning over the proceeds to the party. As he +seated himself a telegraph operator in a dazzling uniform sat down by +his side, saying, in a whisper: + +"That was an affected look of yours a moment ago." + +"When? What are you talking about?" the man with the sainted forehead +asked, colouring. + +"You know what. You made a face as if you were not glad to see +Boulatoff. You know you were, weren't you, now?" + +"I confess I was." + +"Now I like you, old boy. All that is necessary is to take one's self in +hand. Nothing like self-chastisement." + +"Cyclops" bent over to an army captain with a pair of grandiose +side-whiskers and said something in order to hear himself address a +Gentile and an army officer in the familiar "thou." Another young Jew, a +red-headed gymnasium boy named Ginsburg, sat close to the lamp, reading +a book with near-sighted eyes, the yellow light playing on his +short-clipped red hair. His father was a notorious usurer and the chief +go-between in the governor's bribe-taking and money-lending +transactions. Young Ginsburg robbed his father industriously, dedicating +the spoils to the socialist movement. + + * * * * * + +The expectation that that hazy, featureless image which had resided in +his mind for the past five years would soon stand forth in the flesh and +with the mist lifted made Pavel restless. When a girl with short hair +and very sparse teeth told him that Clara Yavner was sure to be around +in less than fifteen minutes, his heart began to throb. The girl's name +was Olga Alexandrovna Andronova (Andronoff). She was accompanied by her +fiance, a local judge--a middle-aged man with a mass of fluffy hair. The +judge was perceptibly near-sighted, like Ginsburg, only when he screwed +up his eyes he looked angry, whereas the short-sightedness of the +red-headed young man had a beseeching effect. The two girls were great +friends, and Olga spoke of her chum in terms of persuasive enthusiasm. +That Boulatoff had special reasons to be interested in Clara Yavner she +was not aware. + +"What has become of her?" she said, looking at the door impatiently. + +"You are adding fuel to my curiosity, Olga Alexandrovna," Pavel said. "I +am beginning to feel somewhat as I once did in the opera, when I was +waiting to see Patti for the first time." + +"And when she came out you were not disappointed, were you?" Olga +asked, exposing her sparse teeth in a broad, honest smile. + +"No," he laughed. + +"Well, neither will you be this time." + +Pavel said to himself humorously: "I am so excited I am afraid I shall +fall in love with that girl. But then predictions seldom come true." +Then he added: "And now that I predict it won't, it will." + + * * * * * + +When she came at last he said inwardly: "That's what she looks like, +then! She certainly does not seem to be a fool whatever else she may +be." That was what people usually said upon their first meeting with +her: "She seems to be no fool." She was a fair-complexioned Jewish girl +of good height. To those unfamiliar with the many types of her race she +might have looked Teutonic. To her own people her face was +characteristically Jewish, of the blond, hazel-eyed variety. It was a +rather small face, round and with a slightly flattened effect between +eyes and mouth that aroused interest. Her good looks were due to a +peculiar impression of intelligence and character to which this effect +contributed and to the picturesqueness of her colouring--healthy white +flesh, clear and firm, set off by an ample crown of fair hair and +illuminated by the brown light of intense hazel eyes. She had with her a +two-year-old little girl, her sister's, and accompanying the two was +Elkin, from whose manner as he entered the crowded room it was easy to +see, first, that he had told Mlle. Yavner of the revolutionary "general" +he was going to introduce her to; second, that he was the leader of the +Circle and the connecting link between it and revolutionary generals. + +"I tried to steal away from her," she said to Olga, meaning the little +girl, "but she ran after us and filled the streets with her cries." She +smiled--an embarrassed smile which made her intelligent face look still +more intelligent. + +When Boulatoff was introduced to her, by Elkin, she blushed slightly. He +watched her with keen curiosity. At the same time the judge's fiancee +was watching him, in the fond hope that he would indorse her opinion of +her friend. When Clara averted her face, while speaking to somebody, her +features became blurred in Pavel's mind, and he sought another look at +her. Whether Elkin had told her of the effect her "speech" during the +Pievakin scene had had on him he had no knowledge. + +Some of the men in the gathering made a point of ignoring the little +privileges of the sex, treating the girls "as human beings, not as +dolls," but Clara and Olga made a joke of it. When Orlovsky offered the +judge's fiancee a chair next to Clara's she thanked him much as an +"unemancipated" girl would have done; whereupon Mlle. Yavner shook her +finger at her, saying merrily: + +"You're getting conservative, Olga. You had better look out." + +The Circle was a loose, informal organisation. There were no fixed rules +or ceremonies for the admission of members nor anything like regularly +elected officers. Nor, indeed, did the members practise formal communism +among themselves, although the property of one was to a considerable +extent the property of all. + +The gathering to-night was naturally larger than usual, owing to the +great news of the day. No one except Pavel knew anything about the +arrested man, each wondering whether the others did. To betray +inquisitiveness, however, would have been unconspiratorlike, so as they +sat about, whispering, in twos or threes, they were at once trying to +suppress their curiosity and to draw each other out. + +The telegraph operator and Orlovsky's superior left early in the +evening, but there soon came two other members, a sergeant of the +captain's command and a gawky seminarist with a trick of drawing in his +neck and throwing out his Adam's apple when he laughed. + +The sergeant took a seat beside his officer and the two fell into +conversation about their regiment, while the theological student at once +set to plying Pavel with questions. Elkin, in an embroidered +Little-Russian shirt, sat smoking a pipe and smiling non-committally. +Every little while he would remove the pipe from his mouth, take a grave +look at the theologian and resume his pipe and his smile. + +The little girl sat on the captain's lap, quietly playing with his sword +until she fell asleep. When Clara beheld the officer struggling to keep +his luxurious side-whiskers from waking the child, she took her niece in +her arms and carried her, with noiseless kisses, toward the door. + +"I'll soon be back. It isn't far," she whispered to Orlovsky, declining +his assistance. + +The men followed her out of the room with fond glances. More than half +of them were in love with her. + +When she got back, somewhat short of breath, Boulatoff was describing +the general feeling in the universities and among working people. His +talk was vague. His rolling baritone rang dry. And now his grip on the +subject was weakened still further by the reappearance of the girl in +whom, during the first few minutes, he instinctively felt a rival centre +of interest. No sooner, however, had the seminarist attacked the party +press than the prince became furious and made a favourable impression. +Once or twice he fell into Zachar's manner and even used several of his +arguments. The seminarist urged his objections chiefly because he wanted +to prove to himself and to the others that he was a man of convictions +and not one to quail before a revolutionary "general." But Pavel took +him seriously. Once when the seminarist attempted to interrupt him, +Clara said, forlornly: + +"He's bound to be right. He's just bound to be right." + +"Don't cry," said Cyclops. Several of the men laughed, and when Clara +joined them their eyes betrayed her power over them. Nothing betrays +your feelings toward another person more surely than the way you take +his merriment. + +The most important topic of the evening was a circular letter from the +Executive Committee of the Will of the People, as Pavel's party was +called, as to the "preparatory work" that was to pave the way to a final +uprising. The discussion was left to the judge, Elkin and Pavel. The +gawky seminarist was silent, with an angry air which implied that the +arguments one was compelled to follow here were exasperatingly beneath +one's criticism. The others listened spellbound, though some of them +scarcely felt convinced. Ingrained in the consciousness of these was the +idea of an abstract elemental giant, tremendous and immutable as the +northern winter, of which the blind forces of the army were only a +personified detail. That this giant should some day, in the near future, +cease to be did not clearly appeal to their imagination. The boldness, +therefore, with which the judge and Pavel spoke of these things greatly +enhanced the fascination of their speeches. + +Cyclops, a huge slice of rye bread in his hand, evidently had something +to say, but did not know how. He was quoting history, blushing, +sputtering, swallowing his own tongue, and finally he lost himself in a +jumble of words. Elkin was just the reverse. He was so calm, so glib and +so lucid of phrase that as long as his speech lasted one was +involuntarily nodding assent; yet when it was over one did not seem to +know exactly what he had said or whether he had had anything to say at +all. At one point he and the judge locked horns and fought long and hard +without clearly understanding each other, until they proved to be +arguing on the same side of the issue. Orlovsky, who took it for granted +that the theoretical discussion was beyond his mental powers, looked on +with stupid admiration. "Here is a bunch of cracks for you!" his beaming +face seemed to say. + +In the course of a pause Clara whispered something to Olga. + +"Why don't you ask it then?" the short-haired girl answered, aloud. + +Clara turned pale, as she began to speak. She went straight to the +point, however, and presently cast off all restraint. + +"All this is very well," she said, referring to a certain passage in the +circular letter, "provided the local authorities really desert the +throne. But suppose they don't, suppose they prove to be hardened +conservatives, devoted slaves of the crown? It seems to me as if we were +inclined to take things for granted--counting without the host, as it +were." + +"Devoted to the crown!" said the gawky theologian. "The fact is that the +high officials are a mere lot of self-seeking curs." + +"Exactly," Pavel thundered, bringing his hands together +enthusiastically. + +Elkin removed the pipe from his mouth and bawled out: "Rats rather than +curs, I should say; rats that are sure to forsake the ship of state the +moment it shows signs of danger." + +The seminarist was annoyed at this attempt to steal the applause from +him, but Boulatoff did not like Elkin's manner and offered him no +encouragement. This disarmed the seminarist's opposition. From this +moment on he listened to Pavel with friendly nods, as who should say: +"Now you are hitting it; now you are talking sense!" + +"Of course," Pavel resumed, "the pamphlet means we should keep agitating +until we are sure of our ground. There is a large liberal-minded class +that does not stir merely because it is made up of a lot of cowards. +These fellows will rally around our banner the moment the government +begins to totter. As to the bureaucracy, it is so decayed, so +worm-eaten, that all it knows at present is how to bend double for an +increase of salary or promotion in rank. A lot of back-boneless +flunkeys, that's what they are. You don't actually think they serve the +Czar from principle?" he asked, addressing himself to Mlle. Yavner. + +"The only principle they care for," Elkin interposed, "is, 'To the devil +with all principles!'" + +"Exactly," Pavel assented, with some irritation. + +"Yes," the seminarist chimed in, "and when they hear the tocsin of +Liberty, Equality and Fraternity--" + +"Liberty, Equality and Fiddlesticks!" Clara mimicked him, mildly, +signing to him not to interrupt the speaker. + +Pavel went on. He spoke at length, looking mostly at her. He was making +an effort to convince her that in the event of a revolution the high +officials would turn cowards, and her face seemed to be saying: "He's +the nephew of a governor, so he ought to know." + +When the yard windows were thrown open the bewhiskered captain sat down +to the piano and struck up an old national tune, to the accompaniment of +two male voices. The others continued their talk under cover of the +music. Pavel made up his mind that the judge and Clara were the most +level-headed members of the Circle, and decided to seek their +cooperation in the business which had brought him to Miroslav. Only the +judge was the more reposeful of the two, as well as incomparably the +better informed. As a rule he was absorbed in his own logic, while Mlle. +Yavner was jarred by every false note in others, nervously sensitive to +all that went on about her, so that when Cyclops, for example, got +tangled in his own verbosity her eyes would cloud up with vexation and +she would come to his rescue, summing up his argument in a few clear, +unobtrusive sentences. There was a glow of enthusiasm in her look which +she was apparently struggling to suppress. Indeed, she was struggling to +suppress some feeling or other most of the time. Her outward calm seemed +to cover an interior of restlessness. + +Pavel's unbounded faith in the party instilled new faith into her. The +great point was that he was a member of the aristocracy. If a man like +him had his whole heart in the struggle, the movement was certainly not +without foundation. Moreover, Boulatoff was close to the revolutionary +centre, and he obviously spoke from personal knowledge. All sorts of +questions worried her, many of which were answered at the present +gathering, partly by herself, partly by others. The new era, when there +would be neither poverty nor oppression, the enchanted era which had won +her heart, loomed clearer than ever. At one moment as she sat listening, +her blond hair gleaming golden in the lamplight, her face lit up by a +look of keen intelligence, Pavel said to himself: "And this Jewish girl +is the one who had the feeling and the courage to make that rumpus over +Pievakin! If I became a revolutionist it was the result of gradual +development, through the help of conditions, books, people; whereas this +girl acted like one, and in the teeth of grave danger, too, purely on +the spur of the moment and long before she knew there was any such thing +as a revolutionary movement; acted like one while I was still a blind, +hard-hearted milksop of a drone." In the capital he knew a number of +girls who were continually taking their lives in their hands and several +of whom were like so many saints to him, but then Mlle. Yavner belonged +to the realm of his home and his boyhood. What he regarded as an act of +heroism on her part was hallowed by that sense of special familiarity +and comprehensibility which clings to things like the old well that +witnessed our childish games. + +She made a very favourable impression on him. If he had been a formal +candidate for her hand, come "bride-seeing," he could not have studied +her more closely than he did now. Indeed, so absorbed was he in her that +once while she was speaking to him laughingly her words fell on a deaf +ear because at that moment he was remarking to himself: "She laughs in a +little rising scale, breaking off in a rocket." + +"There must be something in her, then," he thought "which was the source +of that noble feeling and of that courage." He took to scanning her +afresh, as though looking for a reflection of that something in her +face, and as he looked at her and thought of the Pievakin +"demonstration" it gave him pleasure to exaggerate her instrumentality +in his own political regeneration. + +Olga had relieved her fiance at the piano, and later on when she, too, +rose from the keyboard, Clara eagerly took her place. There was no life +in Mlle. Yavner's tones, but the impassioned sway of her head and form +as she played told of a soul touched with ecstasy; told of the music +which her fingers failed to evoke from the instrument. And the eyes of +half a dozen love-stricken men added their rapture to the sounds. + +Pavel listened to her melody and breathed the scented night air that +came in from the little garden in the yard. He reflected that Clara +might visit the warden's house as a piano teacher. At this it came home +to him that Makar was in prison, and that unless he escaped he was a +lost man. He was seized with terror. The piano sang of a lonely ship, +blue waves, and a starlit night, but to Pavel it spoke of his imprisoned +friend and his own anguish. He joined in the chorus with ferocious +ardour. His heart was crying for Makar's liberation and for a thousand +other things. When she left the piano stool he leaped up to her. + +"Allow me to grasp your hand, Clara Rodionovna," he said, as though +thanking her for the merit of her playing. And then, all unmindful of +comment, he drew her into a secluded corner and said vehemently: + +"I wish also to tell you, Clara Rodionovna, that I have a special reason +to be glad of knowing you; for if I have a right to be among good people +it is you whom I have to thank for it." A thick splash of crimson came +into her face; but before she had time to put her surprise into words, +he poured forth the story of his awakening and how he had all these five +years been looking forward to a meeting with her. As he spoke his face +bore an expression of ecstatic, almost amorous grimness. The girl was +taken by storm. She was literally dazed. An overwhelming, unspoken +intimacy established itself between them on the spot. + +Olga's face was a blend of beaming triumph and tense perplexity. The men +were making an effort to treat Boulatoff's sally with discretion, as if +it were a bit of revolutionary conspiracy and they knew enough to mind +their own business. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A WARNING. + + +It was one o'clock when the assemblage broke up. They scattered over +various sections of the town, Pavel going to his home in the Palace, +while Clara, accompanied by Elkin and Orlovsky, set off in the direction +of Paradise Town. But whatever the character of the district one was +bound for, in their hearts there was the same feeling that they belonged +to a higher life than did those who slept behind the closed shutters +they were passing. This feeling made them think of their group as a +world within a world. Their Circle was a magic one. Somewhere in St. +Petersburg, Moscow, Kieff, Odessa, Siberia, men and women were being +slowly tortured, dying on the gallows; a group of brave people still at +large--the mysterious Executive Committee--was doing things that +thrilled the empire; and they, members of the Miroslav Circle, were the +kin of those heroes. As they dispersed through the sleeping town each +unconsciously remembered the organisation as so many superior beings +dotting a population of human prose. + +"He must be quite close to the Centre," Orlovsky said. + +The other two made no answer. It struck Clara as sacrilege to talk of +Boulatoff, whose fervent face was vivid before her at this minute. +Particularly unbearable was the allusion to the prince to her because it +was Orlovsky who made it. The stout government clerk was one of the men +in love with her, while she often disliked him to abhorrence. She felt a +sincere friendship for him, yet sometimes when he spoke she would be +tempted to shut her ears and to gnash her teeth as people do when they +hear a window pane scratched. This was one of her causeless hatreds with +which she was perpetually struggling. + +Orlovsky construed their irresponsiveness as a rebuke for his speaking +of the revolutionary "centre" in the street; so he started to tell them +about his mother. With Clara by his side his tongue would not rest. Not +so Elkin, who nursed his love in morose silence. When they heard the +whistle of a distant policeman and the answer of a watchman's rattle by +way of showing that he had not fallen asleep on his post, Orlovsky +raised his voice. + +"She is getting more pious every day," he said, as though defying the +invisible policeman to find anything seditious in his words. + +Clara's mind was on Boulatoff. The strange avowal of the man whom she +had never seen before save through the window of a princely carriage +tingled through her veins in a medley of new-born exaltations. Boulatoff +did seem to be close to the Executive Committee, and the sentiments of +that wonderful body, voiced by this high-born young man, the nephew of +the governor of Miroslav, had lit stirring images in her consciousness. +Pavel stood out amid the other revolutionists of her acquaintance even +as the whole Miroslav Circle did in the midst of the rest of her native +town. + +The interchange of signals between policeman and watchman which now and +then sounded through the stillness of the night reminded her of the +unknown man the gendarmes had arrested, of the hard glint of chains, of +gallows. She wondered whether Elkin or Boulatoff knew anything about +that man. She saw herself rapidly marching toward something at once +terrible and divine. She was not the only one who followed this +course--that was the great point. The kindest and best people in +Miroslav, the best and the wisest in the land, and among them children +of governors, of noblemen, were consecrated to that same something which +was both terrible and luring. Her heart went out to her comrades known +and unknown, and as she beheld a sleepy watchman curled up in the recess +of his gateway, she exclaimed without words: "I'm going to die for +you--for you and all the other poor and oppressed people in the world." + +Here and there they passed an illuminated window or an open street door, +through which they saw Jewish artisans at work. They saw the bent forms +of Jewish tailors, they heard the hammer sounds of Jewish carpenters, +tinsmiths, blacksmiths, silversmiths; yet all these made no impression +upon her. There were about 50,000 Jews in Miroslav and as many as +three-fourths of them were pinched, half-starved mechanics, working +fourteen hours a day, and once or twice a week all night, to live on rye +bread and oatmeal soup; yet they made no appeal to her sympathies, while +the Gentiles who were huddled up in front of the gates she was passing +did. The great Russian writers whose stories and songs had laid the +foundation to her love of the masses dealt in Gentiles, not in Jews. +Nekrasoff bewailed the misery of the Russian moujik, not of the common +people of her own race. Turgeneff's sketches breathe forth the poetry of +suffering in a Great-Russian village, not the tragedy and spiritual +beauty of life among the toiling men and women of her own blood. She had +never been in Great Russia, in fact; she had never seen those moujiks +in the flesh. Those she had seen were the Little-Russian peasants, who +came to Miroslav from the neighbouring villages. Her peasants, +therefore, were so many literary images, each with the glamour which +radiates from the pages of an adored author. This was the kind of +"people" she had in mind when she thought of the _Will of the People_. +The Jewish realities of which her own home was a part had nothing to do +with this imaginary world of hers. + + * * * * * + +Clara's home was on a small square which was partly used as a cart-stand +and in one corner of which, a short distance from Cucumber Market, +squatted a policeman's hut. This was the district of a certain class of +artisans and small tradesmen; of harness-makers, trunk-makers, +wheelwrights; of dealers in tar, salt, herring, leaf tobacco, pipes, +accordions, cheap finery. The air was pungent with a thousand strong +odours. The peasants who brought their produce to market were here +supplied with necessaries and trinkets. The name of the big market-place +extended to the entire locality, and Paradise Town was just beyond the +confines of that locality. + +The square for which Clara was bound was called Little Market. A gate in +the centre of one of its four sides, flanked by goose-yards on one side +and by a row of feed-shops and harness-shops on the other, led into a +deep and narrow court, known as Boyko's. At this moment the gate was +closed, its wicket, held ajar by a chain, showing black amid the grey +gloom of the square. + +As Clara and her two escorts came in sight of the spot they saw a man +sitting on a low wooden bench near the gate. + +"Somebody is waiting for me," she said gravely. She thanked them and +bade them good-bye and they went their several ways. + +The man on the bench rose and went to meet her. As he walked toward her +he leaned heavily on his stout, knotty cane--a pose which she knew to be +the result of embarrassment. He was a tall, athletic fellow in a long +spring overcoat, a broad-brimmed felt hat sloping backward on his head. +He bore striking resemblance to Clara; the same picturesque flatness in +the middle part of the face, the same expression. Only his hair was +dark, and his eyes and mouth were milder than hers. They looked like +brother and sister and, indeed, had been brought up almost as such, but +they were only cousins. His name was Vladimir Vigdoroff. His family was +the better-to-do and the worldlier of the two. When he was a boy of four +and he envied certain other two boys because each of them had a little +sister, and he had not, he had made one of his cousin. It was his father +who subsequently paid for Clara's education. + +"You here?" Clara said quietly. + +He nodded, to say yes, with playful chivalry. They reached the bench in +silence, and then he said in a decisive, business-like voice which she +knew to be studied: + +"I expected to have a talk with you, Clara. That's why I waited so long. +But it's too late. Can I see you to-morrow?" + +"Certainly. Will you drop in in the afternoon?" + +He had evidently expected to be detained. He lingered in silence, and +she had not the heart to say good-bye. From a neighbouring lane came the +buzz-buzz of a candlestick-maker's lathe. They were both agitated. She +had been looking forward to this explanation for some time. They divined +each other perfectly. As they now stood awkwardly without being able +either to speak or to part, their minds were in reality saying a good +deal to each other. + +Until recently she had made her home in her uncle's house more than she +had in her father's. Her piano stood there, her uncle's gift, for which +there was no room in the basement occupied by her parents. She had kept +her books there, received her girl friends and often slept there. But +since her initiation into the secret society she had gradually removed +her headquarters to her parents' house, and her visits at Vladimir's +home had become few and far between. Clara had once offered him an +underground leaflet, whereupon he had nearly fainted with fright at +sight of it. He had burned the paper in terror and indignation, and +then, speaking partly like an older brother and partly like the master +of the house which she was compromising, he had commanded her never +again to go near people who handled literature of that sort. Accustomed +to look up to him as her intellectual guide and authority, as the most +brilliant man within her horizon, she had listened to his attack upon +Nihilism and Nihilists with meek reserve, but the new influences she had +fallen under had proven far stronger than his power over her. To relieve +him from the hazards of her presence in the house she had little by +little removed her books and practically discontinued her visits. In the +event of her getting into trouble with the gendarmes her own family was +too old-fashioned and uneducated, in a modern sense, to be suspected of +complicity. As to Vladimir, he missed her keenly, as did everybody else +in the house, but her estrangement had a special sting to it, too, one +unconnected with their mutual attachment as cousins who had grown up +together. Clara's consideration for his safety, implying as it did that +he was too timid and too jealous for his personal security to work for +the revolution, an inferior being uninitiated into the world of pluck +and self-sacrifice to which she, until recently his pupil, belonged, +galled him inordinately. + +At last he lost control over himself. + +"You are playing with fire, Clara," he said, lingering by the bench. + +"I suppose that's what you want to speak to me about," she answered with +calm earnestness, "but this is hardly the place for a discussion of this +sort, Volodia."[B] + + [B] Affectionate diminutive of Vladimir. + +"If you want me to go home you had better say so in so many words. The +high-minded interests you are cultivating are scarcely compatible with +shyness or lack of frankness, Clara." + +"Don't be foolish, Volodia. You know you will make fun of yourself for +having spoken like that." + +"I didn't mean to say anything harsh, Clara. But this thing is scarcely +ever out of my mind. It's a terrible fate you have chosen." + +"How do you know I have?" she asked in a meditative tone that implied +assent. + +"How do I know? Can't we have a frank, honest talk for once, Clara? Let +us go somewhere." + +"We can talk here. To be on the safe side of it, let us talk in +Yiddish." + +He made a grimace of repugnance, and seating himself on the bench he +went on in nervous Russian. + +"You have fallen into company that will do you no good, Clara. If you +are arrested it will break the heart of two families. Is there no soul +left in you?" + +"What put it into your mind that I should be arrested?" she returned, +lugubriously. "And is that all one ought to be concerned about? All +Russia is in prison." + +"I expected something of that sort. Alluring phrases have made you deaf +and blind. It is my duty to try to save you before it is too late." + +He had come for friendly remonstrance, for an open-hearted explanation, +but that mood had been shattered the moment he saw her approaching with +two of her new friends. He persisted in using the didactic tone he had +been in the habit of taking with her, and he could not help feeling how +ridiculously out of place it had become. He chafed under a sense of his +lost authority, and the impotent superiority of his own manner impelled +him to bitterness. + +"Is that what you have come for--to rescue me from empty phrases and bad +company?" + +"Yes, to rescue you from the intoxication of bombast and dangerous +company, whether you are in a sarcastic mood or not." + +"And how are you going to do it, pray?" she asked with rather +good-natured gaiety. + +"Laugh away. Laugh away. Since you took up with those scamps----" + +"Scamps! I can't let you speak like that, Volodia. I don't know what you +mean by 'taking' up with them, but if by 'scamps' you mean people who +are sacrificing themselves----" + +"You misunderstand me----" + +"If by scamps you mean people who will be tortured or hanged for +opposing the tyranny that is crushing us all rather than feather their +own nests, then it is useless for us to continue this talk." + +"Be calm, Clara. You don't wish to misjudge me, do you? Of course, I +needn't tell you that what you say about sacrificing oneself and all +that sort of business is no news to me. Some other time, when you are +not excited, I may have something to say about these things----" + +"That everlasting 'something to say!' People are being throttled, +butchered and you--you have 'something to say.' We are speaking in two +different languages, Volodia." + +"Maybe we are. And I must say you have picked up that new language of +yours rather quickly. I am not going to enter into a lengthy discussion +with you to-night. All I will say now is this: You know that four Jewish +revolutionists have been hanged within the last few months--in Odessa, +Nicolayeff, Kieff and St. Petersburg. If you think that does the Jewish +people any good I am very sorry." + +"What else would you have Jews do? Roll on feather-beds and collect +usury? Would that do 'the Jewish people' good?" + +"You talk like an anti-Semite, Clara." + +"There is no accounting for tastes. You may call it anti-Semitism. You +may be ashamed of four men who die bravely in a terrible struggle +against despotism." + +He cast an uneasy look in the direction of the police booth, but his +courage failed him to urge her to lower her voice. + +"As for me," she went on, "I certainly am proud of them. I hold their +names sacred, yes, sacred, sacred, sacred, do you understand? And if you +intend to continue calling such people scamps then there is nothing left +for us to say to each other. And, by the way, since when have _you_ been +a champion of 'the Jewish people'--you who have taught me to keep away +from everything Jewish; you who are shocked by the very sound of +Yiddish, by the very sight of a wig or a pair of side-locks; you who are +continually boasting of the Gentiles you are chumming with; you who +would give all the Jews in the world for one handshake of a Christian?" + +"Well, I am prepared to take abuse, too, to-night. As to my hatred of +Yiddish and side-locks, that does no harm to anybody. If all Jews +dropped their antediluvian ways and became assimilated with the Russian +population half of the unfortunate Jewish question would be solved." + +"Oh, this kind of talk is really enough to drive one mad. The whole +country is choking for breath, and here you are worrying over the Jewish +question. But then--since when have _you_ been interested in the Jews +and their 'question?'" + +"Whether I have or not, I never helped to aggravate it as those 'heroes' +of yours do. If there are some few rights which the Jew still enjoys, +they, too, will be taken away from him on account of that new-fangled +heroism which has turned your head." + +"Nobody has any 'rights.' Everybody is trampled upon, everybody. That's +what those 'scamps' are struggling to do away with." + +"Everybody has to die for that matter, yet who cares to die an unnatural +death? If the Jews were oppressed like all others and no more, it would +be another matter, but they are not. Theirs is an unnatural oppression." + +"Well, that's what those 'scamps' are struggling for: to do away with +every sort of oppression. Would you have the Jews keep out of that +struggle? Would you have them take care of their own precious skins, and +later on, when life becomes possible in Russia, to come in for a share +of the fruit of a terrible fight that they carefully stayed away from?" + +"Those are dreams, Clara. Dreams and phrases, phrases and dreams. That's +all you have learned of your new friends. Do you deny the existence of a +Jewish question?" + +She scrutinised his face in the grey half-tones of the gathering dawn +and said calmly: + +"Look here, Volodia, you know you are seizing at this 'Jewish question' +as a drowning man does at a straw. You know you have no more interest in +it than I have." + +"I am certainly not delighted to see it exist, if that's what you mean." + +"May I be frank with you, Volodia? All the Jews of the world might cease +to exist, for all you care." + +"It isn't true. All I want is that they should become Russians, cultured +Russians." + +"Well, as for me there is only one question--the question of plain +common justice and plain elementary liberty. When this has been achieved +there won't be any such thing as a Jewish, Polish or Hottentot question. +Yes, those 'scamps' are the only real friends the Jews have." + +"But one cannot live on the golden mist of that glorious future of +yours, Clara. It takes a saint to do that. Every-day mortals cannot help +thinking of equal rights before the law in the sordid present." + +"Think away! Much good will it do the Jews. The only kind of equal +rights possible to-day is for Jew and Gentile to die on the same gallows +for liberty. That's the 'scamps'' view of it." At this the word struck +her in conjunction with the images of Boulatoff, Olga, the judge, and +the other members of the Circle, whereupon she burst out, with a stifled +sob in her voice: "How dare you abuse those people?" + +Not only had she broken loose from his tutelage, but he had found +himself on the defensive. They had changed roles. The pugnacious tone of +conviction, almost of inspiration, with which she parried his jibes +nonplussed him. Usually a bright talker, he was now colourless and +floundering. And the more he tried to work himself back to his old-time +mastery the more helplessly at a disadvantage he appeared. + +"I don't recognise you, Clara," he said. "They have mesmerised you, +those phrase-makers." + +She leaped to her feet. "I don't intend to hear any more of this abuse," +she said. "And the idea of you finding fault with phrase-makers! you of +all men, you to whom a well-turned phrase is dearer than all else in the +world! If they make phrases they are willing to suffer for them at +least." + +"Oh well, they have made a perfect savage of you," he retorted under his +breath. "Good night." + +She was left with a sharp twinge of compunction, but she had barely +dived under the wicket chain when her thoughts reverted to Boulatoff and +what he had said to her. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +CLARA AT HOME. + + +At Boyko's Court the chilly dawn lit up a barricade of wheels, axles, +and bodies of peasant waggons. Through wide cracks of a fence came the +shifting light of a lantern and the sleepy cackling of geese. At the far +end of the deep narrow court hung the pulley chains and bucket of a +roofed well. Clara went through a spacious subterranean passage, dark as +a pocket and filled with the odour of paint. It was crowded with stacks +of trunks, finished and unfinished, but she steered clear of them +without having to feel her way. + +A door swung open, revealing a dimly lighted low-ceiled interior. The +odour of sleep mingled with the odours of paint and putty. + +"Is that you, Tamara?" asked a tall, erect, half-naked old woman in +Yiddish, Tamara being the Jewish name which had been arbitrarily +transformed, at Vladimir's instance, into Clara. + +"Yes, mamma darling," Clara replied. + +"Master of the universe! You get no sleep at all." + +The girl kissed her mother gayly. "You know what papa says," she +rejoined, "'sleep is one sixtieth of death.' Life is better, mamma +dear." + +"I have not studied any of your Gentile books, yet I know enough to +understand that to be alive is better than to be dead," the tall, erect +old woman said without smiling. "But if you want to be alive you must +sleep. Go to bed, go to bed." + +There were between them relations of quizzical comradeship, implying +that each treated the interests of the other with patronising levity, +with the reservation of a common ground upon which they met on terms of +equality and ardent friendship. + +"By the way," the old woman added, yawning, "Volodia was here. He wants +to see you." + +"I know. I found him at the gate." + +"Very well, then, go to bed, go to bed." + +"Is father asleep?" + +At this a red-bearded little man in yellow drawers and a white shirt +open at the neck and exposing a hairy breast, burst from an open side +door. + +"How can one sleep when one is not allowed to?" he fired out. "May she +sink into the earth, her ungodly books and all. I'll break every unclean +bone in you. Who ever heard of a girl roaming around as late as that?" + +"Hush," his wife said with a faint smile, as she urged him back to their +bed-room, much as she would a child. + +The family occupied one large basement room, the better part of which +was used as a trunk-maker's shop and a kitchen, two narrow strips of its +space having been partitioned off for bed-rooms. It was Hannah, Clara's +mother, who conducted the trunk business. The bare wooden boxes came +from a carpenter's shop and she had them transformed into trunks at her +house. Clara's father spent his days and evenings in a synagogue, +studying the Talmud "for its own sake." There were other such scholars +in Miroslav, the wife in each case supporting the family by engaging in +earthly business, while her husband was looking after their common +spiritual welfare in the house of God. Clara's mother was generally +known as "Hannah the trunk-maker," or "Hannah the Devil." In her very +humble way she was a shrewd business woman, tireless, scheming, and not +over-scrupulous, but her nickname had originated long before she was old +enough to be a devil on Cucumber Market. She was a little girl when +there appeared in the neighbourhood what Anglo-Saxons would call "Jack +the Window-Smasher." Window-pane after window-pane was cracked without +there being the remotest clue to the source of the mischief. The +bewigged old women said it was an evil spirit, and engaged a "master of +the name" to exorcise it from the community; but the number of broken +windows continued to grow. The devil proved to be Hannah, and the most +startling thing about the matter, according to the bewigged women of the +neighbourhood, was this, that when caught in the act, she did not even +cry, but just lowered her eyes and frowned saucily. + +Rabbi Rachmiel, as Clara's father was addressed by strangers, was +innocent of "things of the world" as an infant--a hot-tempered, +simple-minded scholar, with the eyes and manner of a tiger and the heart +of a dove. His wife tied his shirt-strings, helped him on with his socks +and boots, and generally took care of him as she might of a baby. When +he spoke of worldly things to her, she paid no heed to his talk. When he +happened to drop a saying from the Talmud she would listen reverently +for more, without understanding a word of what he said. + +Had Clara been a boy her father would have sooner allowed her to be +burned alive than to be taught "Gentile wisdom." But woman is out of the +count in the Jewish church, so he neither interfered nor tried to +understand the effect that Gentile education was having on her. + +Father, mother and daughter represented three distinct worlds, Clara +being as deeply engrossed in her "Gentile wisdom" as Rabbi Rachmiel was +in his Talmud, or as her mother in her trunks. That the girl belonged to +a society that was plotting against the Czar the old people had not the +remotest idea, of course. + +Besides Clara and her married sister the old couple had two sons, one of +them a rabbi in a small town and the other a merchant in the same place. + +Clara put out the smoky light of a crude chimneyless little lamp (with a +piece of wire to work the wick up and down), which had been left burning +for her. A few streaks of raw daylight crept in through the shutters, +falling on a pair of big rusty shears fastened to the top of a wooden +block, on a heap of sheet-iron, and on several rows of old Talmudic +folios which lined the stretch of wall between Clara's partition and one +of the two windows. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE COUNTESS' DISCOVERY. + + +As Pavel mounted the majestic staircase of his mother's residence he +became aware that an abstract facial expression was all his memory +retained of Mlle. Yavner's likeness. He coveted another glance at her +much as a man covets to hear again a new song that seems to be singing +itself in his mind without his being able to reproduce it. + +He found his mother sitting up for him, on the verge of a nervous +collapse. She took him to a large, secluded room, the best in the vast +house for _tete-a-tete_ purposes. It was filled with mementoes, the +trophies of her father's diplomatic career, with his proud collection of +rare and costly inkstands, and with odds and ends of ancient furniture, +each with a proud history as clear-cut as the pedigree of a high-born +race-horse. + +Anna Nicolayevna had planned to lead up to the main question +diplomatically, but she was scarcely seated on a huge, venerable couch +(which made her look smaller than ever) than she turned pale and blurted +out in a whisper: + +"Did you cross the bridge this afternoon?" + +"No. Why?" He said this with fatigued curiosity and looking her full in +the face. + +She dropped her glance. "I thought I saw you there." + +"You were mistaken, then, but what makes you look so uneasy? I did not +go in that direction at all, but suppose I did. Why, what has happened?" + +She cowed before the insistence of his interrogations and beat a +retreat. + +"I am not uneasy at all. I must have been mistaken, then. It is about +Kostia I have been wanting to speak to you. It is quite a serious +matter. You see he is too delicate for the military schools. So I was +thinking of putting him in the gymnasium, but then many of the boys +there are children of undesirable people. One can't be too careful these +days." She was now speaking according to her carefully considered +program, and growing pale once more, she fixed him with a searching +glance, as she asked: "You must have heard of the man the gendarmes +caught, haven't you?" + +"Oh, you mean the fellow who would not open his mouth," he said with a +smile. "Quite a sensation for a town like this. In St. Petersburg or +Moscow they catch them so often it has ceased to be news." + +She went on to speak of the evil of Nihilism, Pavel listening with +growing interest, like a man who had given the matter some +consideration. Poor Anna Nicolayevna! She was no match for him. + +Finally he got up. "Well, I don't really know," he said. "It seems to me +the trouble lies much deeper than that, _mamman_. Those fellows, the +Nihilists, don't amount to anything in themselves. If it were not for +that everlasting Russian helplessness of ours they could do no more harm +than a group of flies. Our factories and successful farms are all run by +Germans; we simply can't take care of the least thing." + +"But what have factories and farms to do with the pranks of demoralised +boys?" + +He smiled. "But if we were not a helpless, shiftless nation a handful of +boys couldn't frighten us, could they?" + +"Very well. Let us suppose you are a minister. What would you do?" + +"What would I do? I shouldn't let things come to such a pass, to begin +with." + +He was tempted to cast circumspection to the winds and to thunder out +his real impeachment of existing conditions. This, however, he could not +afford; so he felt like a boat that is being rowed across stream with a +strong current to tempt her downward. He was sailing in a diagonal +direction. Every now and then he would let himself drift along, only +presently to take up his oars and strike out for the bank again. He +spoke in his loud rapid way. Every now and again he would break off, +fall to pacing the floor silently and listening to the sound of his own +voice which continued to ring in his ears, as though his words remained +suspended in the air. + +Anna Nicolayevna--a curled-up little heap capped by an enormous pile of +glossy auburn hair, in the corner of a huge couch--followed him +intently. Once or twice she nodded approval to a severe attack upon the +government, without realising that he was speaking against the Czar. She +was at a loss to infer whether he was opposed to the new advisers of the +Emperor in the same way in which her brother-in-law and the +ultra-conservative Slavophiles were opposed to them or whether he was +some kind of liberal. He certainly seemed to tend toward the Slavophiles +in his apparent hatred of foreigners. + +"They'll kill him, those murderous youngsters, they are sure to kill +him," he shouted at one point, speaking of the Czar. "And who is to +blame? Is such a state of things possible anywhere in Western Europe?" + +Anna Nicolayevna's eyes grew red and then filled with tears, as she +shrank deeper into the corner of the couch. + + * * * * * + +She was left in a frame of mind that was a novel experience to her. Her +pity was lingering about a stalwart military figure with the gloom and +glint of martyrdom on his face--the face of Alexander II. Quite apart +from this was the sense of having been initiated into a strange ecstasy +of thought and feeling--of bold ideas and broad human sympathies. She +was in an unwonted state of mental excitement. Pavel seemed to be a +weightier personage than ever. The haze that enveloped him was +thickening. Nevertheless his strictures upon Russia's incapacity left +her rankling with a desire to refute them. That national self-conceit +which breeds in every child the conviction that his is the greatest +country in the world and that its superiority is cheerfully conceded by +all other nations, reasserted itself in the countess with resentful +emphasis. To be sure, all the skill, ingenuity and taste of the refined +world came from abroad, but this did not lessen her contempt for +foreigners any more than did the fact that all acrobats and +hair-dressers were Germans or Frenchmen. Her childhood had been spent in +foreign countries and she knew their languages as well as she did her +own; nevertheless her abstraction of a foreigner was a man who spoke +broken Russian--a lisping, stammering, cringing imbecile. She revolted +to think of Russia as being inferior to wretches of this sort, and when +the bridge incident swept back upon her in all the clearness of fact, +her blood ran chill again. "He is the man I saw in the waggon after +all," she said to herself, in dismay. + +She went to bed, but tossed about in an agony of restlessness. When the +darkness of her room began to thin and the brighter objects loomed into +view, she slipped on a wrapper and seated herself at a window, courting +composure in the blossom-scented air that came up from the garden; but +all to no purpose. Ever and anon, after a respite of tranquillity she +would be seized with a new rush of consternation. Pasha was the man she +had seen on the bridge, disguised as an artisan; he was a Nihilist. + + * * * * * + +While Anna Nicolayevna was thus harrowed with doubt, Pavel was pacing +his room, his heart on the point of bursting with a desire to see his +mother again and to make a clean breast of it. The notion of her being +outwitted and made sport of touched him with pity. Come what might, his +poor noble-hearted mother must be kept in the dark no longer. She would +appreciate his feelings. He would plead with her, with tears in his eyes +he would implore her to open her eyes to the appalling inhumanity of the +prevailing adjustment of things. And as he visioned himself making this +plea to her, his own sense of the barbarity of the existing regime set +his blood simmering in him, and quickened his desire to lay it all +before his mother. + +Presently somebody rapped on his door. It was Anna Nicolayevna. + +"I must speak to you, Pasha; I can't get any sleep," she said. + +They went into a newly-built summer house. The jumble of colour and +redolence was invaded with light that asserted its presence like a great +living spirit. The orchard seemed to be worlds away from itself. + +As a precaution, they spoke in French. + +"Pasha, you are the man I saw on the bridge," she said. "You are a +Nihilist." + +"Sh-h, don't be agitated, mother dear, I beg of you," he replied with +tender emphasis. "I am going to tell you all. Only first compose +yourself, mamma darling, and hear me out. Yes, I'm what you call a +Nihilist, but I am not the man you saw." + +"You a Nihilist, Pasha!" she whispered, staring at him, as though a +great physical change had suddenly come over him. "Anyhow, you have +nothing to do with the man they have arrested?" + +He shook his head and she felt relieved. His avowal of being a Nihilist +was so startling a confession to make, that she believed all he said. He +was a Nihilist, then--a Nihilist in the abstract; something shocking, no +doubt, but remote, indefinite, vague. The concrete Nihilism contained in +the picture of a man disguised as a laborer and having some thing to do +with the fellow under arrest--that would have been quite another matter. +He told her the story of his conversion in simple, heart-felt eloquence; +he pictured the reign of police terror, the slow massacre of +school-children in the political dungeons, the brutal fleecing and +maltreatment of a starving peasantry. + +"I found myself in a new world, mother," he said. "It was a world in +which the children of refined, well-bred families fervently believed +that he who did not work for the good of the common people was not a man +of real honour. Indeed, of what use has the nobility been to the world? +They are a lot of idlers, _mamman_, a lot of good-for-nothings. For +centuries we have been living on the fat of the earth, luxuriating in +the toil, misery and ignorance of the peasants. It is to their drudgery +and squalor that we owe our material and mental well-being. We ought to +feel ashamed for living at the expense of these degraded, literally +starving creatures; yet we go on living off their wretchedness and even +pride ourselves upon doing so. Let us repay our debt to them by working +for their real emancipation. We have grown fat on serfdom, so we must +give our blood to undo it, to bring about the reign of liberty. This is +the sum and substance of our creed, mother. This is the faith that has +taken hold of me. It is my religion and will be as long as I live." + +In his entire experience as a revolutionary speaker he had never felt as +he did at the present moment. + +A host of sparrows burst into song and activity, all together, as though +at the stroke of a conductor's baton; and at this it seemed as if the +flood of perfume had taken a spurt and the sunlight had begun to smile +and speak. He went on in the same strain, and she listened as she would +to a magic tale that had no bearing upon the personality of her son. His +voice, sharp and irascible as it often sounded, was yet melodious in its +undercurrent tone of filial devotion. The vital point, indeed, was that +at last he was uncovering his soul to her. She was not shocked by what +she heard. Rather, she was proud of his readiness to sacrifice himself +for an ideal, and what is more, she felt that his world lured her heart +also. + +"But the Emperor is a noble soul, Pasha," she said. "He has emancipated +the serfs. If there ever was a friend of the common people the present +Czar is one." + +Her objections found him ready. He had gone over these questions +hundreds of times before, and he gave her the benefit of all his former +discussions and reading. At times he would borrow a point or two from +Zachar's speeches. Touching upon the emancipation of the serfs, he +contended that Alexander II. had been forced to the measure by the +disastrous results of the Crimean War; and that the peasants, having +been defrauded of their land, were now worse off than ever. + +"Oh, mother," he suddenly exclaimed, "whenever you think of the +abolition of serfdom think also of the row of gallows he had erected +about that very time for noble-minded Polish patriots. Do you remember +Mme. Oginska, that unfortunate Polish woman we met at the health-resort? +Gallows, gallows, nothing but gallows in his reign." + +When she referred to the late war "in behalf of the oppressed Slavonic +races of the Balkans," Pavel asked her why the Czar had not first +thought of his own oppressed Russians, and whether it was not hypocrisy +to send one's slaves to die for somebody else's freedom. The Emperor had +secured a constitution for Bulgaria, had he? Why, then, was he hanging +those who were striving for one in his own land? A war of emancipation +indeed! It was the old Romanoff greed for territory, for conquest, for +bloodshed. + +He literally bore her down by a gush of arguments, facts, images. Now +and again he would pause, sit looking at the grass in grim silence, and +then, burst into another torrent of oratory. It was said of Zachar that +a single speech of his was enough to make a convert of the most hopeless +conservative. Pavel was far from possessing any such powers of pleading +eloquence, when his audience was made up of strangers, but he certainly +scored a similar victory by the appeal which he was now addressing to +his mother. + +He went to order coffee. When he returned, reveille was sounding in the +barracks. + +"There you have it!" he said. "Do you know what that sound means? It +means that the youngest, the best forces of the country are turned into +weapons of human butchery." + +The brass notes continued, somewhat cracked at times, but loud and +vibrant with imperious solemnity. + +"It means, too, that people are forced to keep themselves in chains at +the point of their own bayonets," he added. + + * * * * * + +The next few days were spent by the countess in reading "underground" +literature. She was devouring paper after paper and pamphlet after +pamphlet with tremulous absorption. The little pile before her included +scientific treatises, poetry and articles of a polemical nature, and she +read it all; but she was chiefly interested in the hair-breadth escapes, +pluck and martyrdom of the revolutionists. The effect this reading had +on her was something like the thrilling experience she had gone through +many years ago when she was engrossed in the Lives of Saints. + +"It makes one feel twenty years younger," she said to Pavel, bashfully, +as she laid down a revolutionary print and took the glasses off her +tired eyes one forenoon. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +PAVEL AT BOYKO'S COURT. + + +Clara was introduced to Mme. Shubeyko, the warden's sister-in-law, and +to her niece, the gendarme officer's sister. At first communication with +Makar was held by means of notes concealed in cigarettes and carried to +and fro by one of the warders, who received half a ruble per errand; but +Clara was soon installed in the warden's house. Once or twice Pavel +spoke with Makar directly, by means of handkerchief signals based on the +same code as the telegraph language which political prisoners rap out to +each other through their cell walls. These signals Pavel sent from the +top of a hill across the river from Makar's cell window. To allay +suspicion he would wave his handkerchief toward Masha or Clara, who +stood for the purpose on a neighbouring hill, giving the whole +proceeding the appearance of a flirtation. As to Makar, his cell was in +an isolated part of the prison, facing the outer wall. Still, this mode +of communication was exasperatingly slow and attended by some risks +after all, and Pavel had recourse to it only in case of extreme +necessity, although to the prisoner it was a welcome diversion. + +One day, when Clara, Masha and Pavel were together, he said to the +gendarme officer's sister, with mystifying gaiety: + +"Well, have you discovered the heroine of the Pievakin demonstration?" +He regretted the question before it had left his lips. Clara was +annoyed. + +"No, why?" Masha asked, looking from him to her. + +"I have the honour to introduce--" he said, colouring. For some reason +Masha did not seem to be agreeably impressed by the announcement, and +Clara did not fail to notice it. + +As it was rather inconvenient for the son of Countess Varoff to be seen +at the house of a major of gendarmes, Clara was to report to him at the +residence of her parents. In the depth of the markets and the Jewish +quarter his identity was unlikely to be known. Clara had lived at the +warden's house about a fortnight when Pavel's first visit at the trunk +shop took place. She offered him a rude chair in the small space between +the partition of her bed-room and the window by the wall that was lined +with the worn folios of her father's meagre library. The room was +pervaded by odours of freshly planed wood, putty and rusty tin which the +breath of spring seemed to intensify rather than to abate. + +Motl, Hannah's sole employe, was hammering away at his bindings and +courting attention by all sorts of vocal quirks and trills. During the +Days of Awe, the solemn festivals of autumn, he sang in a synagogue +choir; so he never ceased asserting his musical talents. As Clara's +visitor took no heed of his flourishes he proceeded to imitate domestic +animals, church bells, a street organ playing a selection from Il +Trovatore, and a portly captain drilling his men, but all to no purpose. +As the noise he was making was a good cover for their talk, she did not +stop him. At any rate, Motl scarcely understood any Russian. + +"I have only seen him at a distance," Clara said, meaning the prisoner. +"But I know that he eats and sleeps well, and looks comfortable." + +"He would look comfortable if you tied him up in a sack. Is he still +'dumb'?" + +She portrayed the warden's bed-ridden and voiceless wife who suffered +from a disease of the spinal and vocal chords, and the disorder at his +house and in the prison. She had always wondered at the frequent cases +of political gaol-breaking, but if every gaol were conducted as this one +was the number would be much larger, she thought. That vodka was quite +openly sold and bought in every common gaol in the empire was no news to +her, but this was a trifle compared to what she had heard of Rodkevich's +administration. One of his gaolers had told her of imprisoned thieves +whom he would give leave of absence in order that he might confiscate +part of their booty when they came back. + +"Yes, I think he is a man who would go into any kind of scheme that +offered money, or--excitement," she said, gravely; and she added with a +smile: "He might even become a man of principle if there were money in +it." + +"He won't give 'a political' 'leave of absence,' though, will he?" Pavel +joked. "Still, upon the whole, it looks rather encouraging." + +"I think it does." + +"Do you?" And his eyes implored her for a more enthusiastic prediction +of success. + +"Indeed I do," she answered soberly. "But whether I do or not, we must +go to work and get him out." + +"This damsel is certainly not without backbone," he said to himself. + +He had familiarised himself with the details in the case of almost every +revolutionist who had escaped or attempted to escape from prison. Some +of these had made their way through an underground passage; others had +passed the gateman in the disguise of a soldier or policeman; still +others had been wrenched from their convoy, while being taken to the +gendarme office or a photograph gallery. Prince Kropotkin had simply +made a desperate break for liberty while the gates of the prison +hospital in which he was confined stood open, a cab outside bearing him +off to a place of safety. Another political prisoner regained his +freedom by knocking down a sentinel with brass knuckles, while still +another, who was awaiting death in Odessa, would have made his escape by +means of planks laid from his cell window to the top of the prison +fence, had not these planks proved to be too flimsy. In one place an +imprisoned army officer slipped away under cover of a flirtation in +which a girl prisoner had engaged the warden. A revolutionist named +Myshkin had tried to liberate Chernishevsky, the celebrated critic, by +appearing at the place of his banishment, in far-away Siberia, in the +guise of a gendarme officer with an order for the distinguished exile, +and a similar scheme had been tried on the warden of a prison in +European Russia. Both these attempts had failed, but then in the case in +hand there was the hope of Rodkevich, the warden, acting as a willing +victim. Pavel said he would impersonate one of the gendarmes. + +"Some of the gaolers may know you," Mlle. Yavner objected. + +"That's quite unlikely, I was away so long. Besides, the thing would +have to be done in the evening anyhow. I must be on hand. It will be +necessary." + +"You might be recognised after all," she insisted, shyly. + +Another project was to have a rope thrown over the prison fence, in a +secluded corner of the yard. This was to be done at a signal from +within, while Makar was out for exercise, in the charge of a bribed +guard. The guard was to raise an alarm when it was too late, telling how +his prisoner knocked him down and was hoisted out of sight. Or Makar +might be smuggled out in a barrel on some provision waggon, the +prescribed examination of the vehicle being performed by a friendly +gaoler. Whatever plan they took up, Pavel insisted on playing the +leading part in it. He was for taking Makar away in a closed carriage, +if need be under cover of pistol shots. Clara urged that in the event +the equipage had to wait for some time, its presence about the prison +was sure to arouse dangerous curiosity. Altogether she was in favour of +a quiet and simple proceeding. Safonoff's house was within easy distance +from the prison, so if Masha could undertake to keep her brother away +from home, Clara would prefer to have Makar walk quietly to that place, +as a first resort, thence to be taken, thoroughly disguised, to the +"conspiracy house" of the Circle. But Pavel picked the proposition to +pieces. + +Since her initiation into the warden's house Clara had been in a +peculiarly elevated state of mind, her whole attention being absorbed in +her mission in which she took great pride. This uplifted mood of hers +she strove to suppress, and the clear-headed, matter-of-fact way in +which she faced the grave dangers of her task animated Pavel with a +feeling of intimate comradeship as well as admiration. + +As they now sat in the cleanest and brightest corner of the trunk shop +he was vaguely sensible of a change in her appearance. Then he noticed +that instead of the dark woolen dress she had worn at the time of their +previous meetings she had on a fresh blouse of a light-coloured fabric. +To be seen in a new colour is in itself becoming to a woman, but this +blouse of Clara's was evidently a tribute to spring. Her face seemed to +be suffused with the freshness of the month. + +While they sat talking, her mother came in, an elderly Jewess, tall and +stately, with a shrewd, careworn look, her hair carefully hidden beneath +a strip of black satin. + +"Is that you, Tamara?" she asked without taking notice of the stranger. +She said something to Motl, made for the door, but suddenly returned, +addressing herself to her daughter again. She wanted to know something +about the law of chattel-mortgages, but neither Clara nor her visitor +could furnish her the desired information. + +"Always at those books of theirs, yet when it comes to the point they +don't know anything," she said, with a smile, as she bustled out of the +room. + +"Are these Talmud books?" Pavel asked, pointing at Rabbi Rachmiel's +library. + +"Yes," Clara nodded with an implied smile in her voice. + +"Can you read them?" + +"Oh, no," she answered, smiling. + +He told her that Makar was a deep Talmudic scholar and talked of the +Jewish religion, but she offered him no encouragement. She was brimful +of questions herself. Her inquiries were concerned with the future +destinies of the human race. With all her practical common sense, she +had a notion that the era of undimmed equality and universal love would +dawn almost immediately after the overthrow of Russian tyranny. This, as +she had been taught by revolutionary publications, was to come as the +logical continuation of Russia's village communes, once the development +of this survival of prehistoric communism received free scope. What she +wanted was a clear and detailed account of life in Future Society. + +Her questions and his answers had the character of a theoretical +discussion. Gradually, however, he mounted to a more animated tone, +portraying the future with quiet fervour. She listened gravely, her eyes +full upon his, and this absorbed look spurred him on. But presently her +mother came in again, this time with a peasant customer, and they went +out to continue their talk in the open air. There were plenty of +deserted lanes and bits of open country a short distance off. There was +a vague gentle understanding between them that it was the golden +idealism of their talk which had set them yearning for the unhidden sky +and the aromatic breezes of spring. This upheld their lofty mood while +they silently trudged through the outskirts of the market place. They +could not as yet continue their interrupted conversation, and to speak +of something else would have seemed profanation. At last they emerged on +a lonely square, formed by an orchard, some houses and barns and the +ruin of an old barrack. The air was excellent and there was nobody to +overhear them. Nevertheless when Pavel was about to resume he felt that +he was not in the mood for it. Nor did she urge him on with any further +questions. + +From the old barracks they passed into a dusty side lane and thence into +a country road which led to a suburb and ran parallel to the railway +tracks. + +The sun was burning by fits and starts, as it were. In those spots where +masses of lilacs and fruit blossoms gave way to a broader outlook, the +road was so flooded with light that Clara had to shield her eyes with +her hand. Now and again a clump of trees in the distance would fall +apart to show the snow-crested top of a distant hill and the blueish +haze of the horizon-line. + +Their immediate surroundings were a scrawny, frowzy landscape. The lawns +in front of the huts they passed, the homes of washerwomen, were +overspread with drying linen. + +"Delightful, isn't it?" Pavel said, inhaling a long draught of the rich, +animating air and glancing down a ravine choked with nettle. The remark +was merely a spoken sigh of joy. She made no reply. + +They were both hungry, and presently they began to feel tired as well. +Yet neither of them was disposed to halt or to break silence except by +an occasional word or two that meant nothing. + +At last he said: + +"You must be quite fatigued. It's cruel of me." + +"I am, but it isn't cruel of you," she answered, stopping short, and +drawing a deep, smiling breath. + +He ran into a washerwoman's hovel, startling a brood of ducklings on his +way, and soon came back with the information that milk was to be had in +a trackman's hut beyond a sparse grove to the right. + +A few minutes later they sat at a rude table in a miniature garden +between the shining steel rails of the track and a red-painted cabin. It +was the fourth track-house from the Miroslav railroad station and was +generally known as the Fourth Hut. Besides milk and eggs and coarse rye +bread they found sour soup. They ate heartily, but an echo of their +exalted dream was still on them. To Pavel this feeling was embodied in +an atmosphere of femininity that pervaded his consciousness at this +moment. He was sensible of sitting in front of a pretty, healthy girl +full of modest courage and undemonstrative inspiration. The lingering +solemnity of his mood seemed to have something to do with the shimmering +little hairs which the breeze was stirring on Clara's neck, as she bent +over her earthen bowl, with the warm colouring of her ear, with the +elastic firmness of her cheek, with the airiness of her blouse. + +A desire stirred in him to speak once more of the part she had +unconsciously played in his conversion, and at this he felt that if he +told her the story he would find a peculiar pleasure in exaggerating the +importance of the effect which her "speech" had produced on his mind. +But it came over him that Makar was still behind the prison gate and +that this was not the time to enjoy oneself. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +STRAWBERRIES. + + +That walk to the trackman's hut had kindled a new light in Pavel's soul. +He often found himself craving for a repetition of the experience--not +merely for Clara's companionship, but for another occasion to walk +through the fields with her, to sit by her side in the breeze, and, +above all, for the intimacy of seeing her fatigued and eating heartily. +She dwelt in his mind as a girl comrade, self-possessed and plucky, +gifted with grit, tact and spirit; at the same time she lingered in his +consciousness as a responsive pupil, glowing with restrained enthusiasm +over his talk, eagerly following him through an ecstasy of lofty dreams. +These two aspects of her were merged in the sight and odour of healthy, +magnificently complexioned girlhood between the glint of steel rails and +the dusty geranium in a trackman's window. + +They had another appointment. When he called at the trunkmaker's shop +Clara greeted him with a hearty handshake. He blushed. His love seemed +to be gaining on him by leaps and bounds. + +"How are things?" he asked. + +"First rate, Pavel Vassilyevich. The vegetable man will do it. He's a +trump, I tell you." She went into details. She was in unusually good +spirits. They talked business and of the adjustment of things under +socialism. Pavel, too, was in good humour, yet floating in his mind was +the same old question: And what if all fails and Makar is removed to St. +Petersburg? + +They met again and again. One day, after they had arrived at certain +conclusions regarding Makar, Pavel said: + +"Shall we take a walk?" + +She nodded assent. + +"I am again full of questions." + +"Again worrying about the future fate of humanity?" + +"Yes, I seem to have no end of questions about it. I wonder whether I +shall remember all those that have occurred to me since I last saw you. +I ought to have jotted them down." + +"You don't want to pump me dry in one day, do you?" + +"Well, if the truth must be told, I rather do. You will soon be leaving +us, I suppose, so I am anxious to strike the iron while it is hot." + +The personal question as to the length of his stay sent a little wave of +warmth through his blood. They set out in the direction of the +trackman's hut as a matter of course. Instead of following their former +route, however, they chose, upon a motion from Clara, who was more +familiar with these suburbs than Pavel, a meandering, hilly course that +offered them a far better view as well as greater privacy. A stretch of +rising ground took them to the Beak, a promontory so called for the +shape of a cliff growing out of its breast. The common people had some +pretty stories to tell of a gigantic bird of which the rocky beak was a +part and whose petrified body was now asleep in the bosom of the hill +that had once been its nest. + +Pavel and Clara sat down to rest on the freshly carpeted slope. The town +clustered before them in a huddle of red, white, green and grey, shot +with the glitter of a golden-domed cathedral, the river flashing at one +end like the fragment of an immense sabre. It was warm and quiet. There +was not a human soul for a considerable distance around. Now and again +the breeze would gently stir the weeds and the wild-flowers, lingering +just long enough to scent the hillside with pine odours and then +withdrawing, on tiptoe, as it were, like a thoughtful friend taking care +that the two young people were kept supplied with the bracing aroma +without being disturbed more than was necessary. Once or twice Clara +held out her chin, sniffing the enchanted air. + +"Isn't it delightful!" she said. + +"It's a specimen of what life under Society of the Future will feel +like," Pavel jested, with a wistful smile. + +At one point when she addressed him as Pavel Vassilyevich, as she +usually did, he was tempted to ask her to dispense with his patronymic. +In the light of the hearty simplicity of manners which prevailed in the +revolutionary movement they were well enough acquainted to address each +other by their first names only. Yet when he was about to propose the +change the courage failed him to do so. Whereupon he said to himself, +with a deep inward blushing, that the cause of this hesitancy and +confusion of his was no secret to him. + +"Hello there! A strawberry!" she called out, with a childish glee which +he had not yet seen in her. And flinging herself forward she reached out +her white girlish hand toward a spot of vivid red. The berry, of that +tiny oblong delicious variety one saucerful of which would be enough to +fill a fair-sized room with fragrance, lay ensconced in a bed of sun-lit +leaves--a pearl of succulent, flaming colour in a setting of green +gold. + +"Oh, I haven't the heart to pick it," she said, staying her hand and +cooing to the strawberry as she would to a baby: "Won't touch you, berry +darling. Won't touch you, sweetie." + +"Spare its life then," he answered, "I'll see if I can't find others." + +And sure enough, after some seeking and peeping and climbing, Pavel came +upon a spot that was fairly jewelled with strawberries. + +"Quite a haul," he shouted down. + +She joined him and they went on picking together, each with a thistle +leaf for a saucer. + +"Why, it's literally teeming with them," she said, in a preoccupied +voice, deeply absorbed in her work. "One, two, three, and four, +and--seven; why, bless me,--and eight and nine. What a pity we have +nothing with us. We could get enough to treat the crowd at Orlovsky's." + +Pavel made no reply. Whenever he came across a berry that looked +particularly tempting he would offer it to her silently and resume his +work. He was oppressively aware of his embarrassment in her presence and +the consciousness of it made him feel all the more so. He was distinctly +conscious of a sensation of unrest, both stimulating and numbing, which +had settled in him since he made her acquaintance. It was at once +torture and joy, yet when he asked himself which of the two it was, it +seemed to be neither the one nor the other. Her absence was darkness; +her presence was light, but pain and pleasure mingled in both. It made +him feel like a wounded bird, like a mutely suffering child. At this +moment it blent with the flavour and ruddiness of the berries they were +both picking, with the pine-breeze that was waiting on them, with the +subdued lyrics of spring. + +And he knew that he was in love. + +He had never been touched by more than a first timid whisper of that +feeling before. It was Sophia, the daughter of the former governor of +St. Petersburg, whose image had formerly--quite recently, in +fact--invaded his soul. He had learned immediately that she belonged to +Zachar and his dawning love had been frightened away. Otherwise his life +during these five years had been one continuous infatuation of quite +another kind--the infatuation of moral awakening, of a political +religion, of the battlefield. + +From the Beak they proceeded by the railroad track, now walking over the +cross-ties, now balancing along the polished top of one rail. She was +mostly ahead of him, he following her with melting heart. By the time +they reached the trackman's place, the shadows had grown long and +solemn. Pavel had no appetite. He ate because Clara did. "Here I am +watching her eat again," he thought. But the spectacle was devoid of the +interest he had expected to find in it. + +Nevertheless the next morning, upon waking, it burst upon him once more +that seated within him was something which had not been there about a +month ago. When he reflected that he had no appointment with Clara for +these two days, that disquieting force which was both delicious and +tantalising, the force which enlivened and palsied at once, swelled in +his throat like a malady. But no, far from having such a bodily quality, +it had spiritualised his whole being. He seemed unreal to himself, while +the outside world appeared to him strangely remote, agonisingly +beautiful, and agonisingly sad--a heart-rending elegy on an unknown +theme. The disquieting feeling clamoured for the girl's presence--for a +visit to the scene of their yesterday's berry-picking, at least. He +struggled, but he had to submit. + +To the Beak, then, he betook himself, and for an hour he lay on the +grass, brooding. Everything around him was in a subdued agitation of +longing. The welter of gold-cups and clover; the breeze, the fragrance +and the droning of a nearby grasshopper; the sky overhead and the town +at his feet--all was dreaming of Clara, yearning for Clara, sighing for +Clara. Seen in profile the grass and the wild-flowers acquired a new +charm. When he lay at full length gazing up, the sky seemed perfectly +flat, like a vast blue ceiling, and the light thin wisps of pearl looked +like painted cloudlets upon that ceiling. There were moments in this +reverie of his when the Will of the People was an echo from a dim past, +when the world's whole struggle, whether for good or for evil, was an +odd, incomprehensible performance. But then there were others when +everything was listening for the sound of a heavenly bugle-call; when +all nature was thirsting for noble deeds and the very stridulation of +the grasshopper was part of a vast ecstasy. + +"That won't do," he said in his heart. "I am making a perfect fool of +myself, and it may cost us Makar's freedom." As he pictured the Janitor, +Zachar and his other comrades, and what they would say, if they knew of +his present frame of mind, he sprang to his feet in a fury of +determination. "I must get that idiot out of the confounded hole he put +himself into and get back to work in St. Petersburg. This girl is not +going to stand in my way any longer." He felt like smashing palaces and +fortresses. But whatever he was going to do in his freedom from Clara, +Clara was invariably a looker-on. When he staked his life to liberate +Makar she was going to be present; after the final blow had been struck +at despotism, she would read in the newspapers of his prominent part in +the fight. + +The next time he saw her he felt completely in her power. + +Clara was in a hurry, but an hour after they had parted he found an +honest excuse for seeing her again that very day. The appointment was +made through Mme. Shubeyko, and in the afternoon he called at the trunk +shop once more. + +"We have been ignoring a very important point, Clara Rodionovna," he +said solicitously. "Since the explosion at the Winter Palace the spies +have been turning St. Petersburg upside down. They literally don't leave +a stone unturned. Now, Makar went away before the examinations at the +Medical Academy and he disappeared from his lodgings without filing +notice of removal at the police station." + +"And if they become curious about his whereabouts the name of the +Miroslav Province in his papers may put the authorities in mind of their +Miroslav prisoner," Clara put in, with quick intelligence. + +He nodded gloomily and both grew thoughtful. + +"They would first send word to Zorki, his native town, though," Pavel +then said, "to have his people questioned, and I shouldn't be surprised +if they brought his father over here to be confronted with him." + +"That would be the end of it," Clara remarked, in dismay. + +The next day Pavel telegraphed it all over to Makar, by means of his +handkerchief, from the hill which commanded the prisoner's window. + +"I have a scheme," Makar's handkerchief flashed back. + +"For God's sake don't run away with yourself," Pavel returned. "It's a +serious matter. Consider it maturely." + +"Do you know anybody in Paris or any other foreign city you could write +to at once?" + +"I do. Why?" Pavel replied. + +"Get me some foreign paper. I shall write two letters, one to my father +and one to my wife, both dated at that place. If these letters were sent +there and that man then sent them to my people at Zorki, it would mean I +am in Paris. Understand?" + +"I do. You are crazy." + +"Why? Father will let bygones be bygones. I should tell him the whole +truth. He is all right." + +"He won't fool the gendarmes." + +"He will!" the white speck behind the iron bars flicked out vehemently. +"He'll do it. Provided he is prepared for it." + +"You are impossible. If an order came from St. Petersburg your Zorki +gendarmes would not dare think for themselves. They would just hustle +him off to Miroslav." + +"Then get father away from there." + +"They would take your wife, anybody who could identify you." + +"Father is better after all. He would look me in the face and say he +does not know me. He could do it." + +"And later go to Siberia for it?" + +"You are right. But I don't think the order will be to take him here at +once. They'll first examine him there. He'll have a chance to fool +them." + +Clara offered to go to Zorki at once, but Makar was for a postponement +of her "conspiracy trip." Saturday of Comfort was near at hand, and +then the little Jewish town would be crowded with strangers, so that +Mlle. Yavner might come and go without attracting attention even in the +event the local gendarmes had already been put on the case. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +A "CONSPIRACY TRIP." + + +Zorki was in a state of joyous excitement. The "Good Jew" of Gornovo, +accompanied by a retinue of beadles, secretaries, "reciters," +attendants, scribes and hangers on, was pleased to grace the little +community with his annual visit; so the Pietists had left their +workshops and places of business to drink in religious ecstasy and to +scramble for advice, miracles and the blessed leavings from the holy +man's table. The population of the little town was rapidly increasing by +an influx of Pietists from neighbouring hamlets. + +Clara, with a kerchief round her head, which gave her the appearance of +an uneducated "daughter of Israel," was watching a group of men and boys +who stood chattering and joking in front of one of the best houses in +town, at the edge of the market place. It was in this house where the +Good Jew made his headquarters every time he came to Zorki and where he +was now resting from his journey. The sun stood high. A peasant woman +was nursing her baby in a waggon, patiently waiting for her husband. Two +elderly peasants in coarse, broad-brimmed straw-hats, one of them with +an interminable drooping moustache, were leaning against the +weight-house, smoking silently. For the rest, the market place, enclosed +by four broken rows of shops, dwellings and two or three government +offices--squatting one-story frame structures--was almost deserted; but +one of the two streets bounding it, the one on which we find Clara at +this minute, was quite alive with people. An opening at one side of the +square showed a sloping stretch of road and a rectangular section of the +river, the same as that which gleamed in Miroslav. The knot of men which +Clara was watching all wore broad flat-topped caps, and, most of them, +long-skirted coats. A man of fifty-five, short and stocky, with massive +head and swarthy face, the image of Makar, was the centre of the crowd. + +"If you were a Pietist and a decent man," he said, in subdued accents, +to a red-bearded "oppositionist" with gloomy features, "you would not +wear that long face of yours. Come, cheer up and don't be a kill-joy!" +And he slapped him on the back with all his might. + +"Stop!" the Oppositionist said, reddening from the blow. "What's got +into you? What reason have you to be so jolly anyhow?" And addressing +himself to the bystanders: "He has not had a drop of vodka, yet he will +make believe he's in his cups." + +"What's that?" the swarthy man protested in a soft, mellow basso, "Can't +a fellow be jolly without filling himself full of vodka? If you were a +respectable man and a Pietist and not a confounded seek-sorrow of an +Oppositionist you would not think so. Drink! Why, open the Pentateuch, +and wherever your eye falls there is drink to make you happy. 'In the +beginning God created heaven and earth!' Isn't that reason enough for a +fellow to be jolly?" + +The bystanders smiled, some in partisan approbation, others with amused +superiority, still others with diplomatic ambiguity. + +The heavy-set, swarthy man was Makar's father, Yossl Parmet. He bore +striking resemblance to his son. Clara stood aghast. If he were +confronted with the Miroslav prisoner, the identity of the Nihilist +would be betrayed, whether the old man admitted the relationship or not. +The only way out of it was to avoid such a confrontation by getting +Yossl away for a few months. But then, once the Miroslav gendarmerie +learned that a man named Parmet whose home was at Zorki was missing, the +secret could not last for any length of time. In compliance with Makar's +wish, Clara decided to take him into her secret. Accordingly, she +mingled with the men, took part in the joking, and by the time the crowd +dispersed she and Yossl were talking on terms of partial familiarity. +Finding an opportune moment, she said to him, with intentional +mysteriousness: + +"There is something I want to speak to you about, Reb Yossl. I have seen +your son." + +The old man gave her a startled, scrutinising glance. Then, his face +hardening into a preoccupied business-like expression, he said aloud: + +"Where are you stopping?" + +She named her inn, and the two started thither together. There were so +many strangers in town, each in quest of an audience with the "Good +Jew," and Yossl was so close to the holy man, or to those near him, that +their conversation attracted scarcely any notice. + +"It's a very serious matter, Reb Yossl," she said, as they crossed the +market place. "Nobody is to know anything about it, or it may be bad for +your son." + +"Go ahead," he snarled, turning pale. "Never mind spending time on a +woman's prefaces. What is up?" + +"You know how the educated young people of these days are. There is +nothing, in fact, the matter. It'll soon be over. But for the present it +would do him good if the gendarmes knew he was in Paris." + +"Why, isn't he in Paris?" Yossl asked morosely. "I received a letter +from him from there." + +"Of course he is. Only, the gendarmes, in case they look for him, and +they may do so sooner or later, you know, the gendarmes may not believe +he is there. So it would be a good thing if you could convince them of +it. Your son would be benefited by it very much." + +Yossl took fire. + +"On my part let him go to all the black ghosts!" he burst out. "'The +educated people of these days,' indeed! First he will play with fire and +then he wants me to fight his battles! Would he have his old father go +to prison on account of him? He is not in Paris, then? I am as clever as +you, young woman. I, too, understand a thing or two, though I am not of +'the educated people of these days!' It is not enough that he has got in +trouble himself; he wants to drag me in, too. Is that the kind of +'education' he has got? Is that what he has broken with his wife and +father for? The ghost take him!" + +"Don't be excited, Reb Yossl," Clara pleaded, earnestly. "It's a +treasure of a son you have and you know it. As to the education he has +acquired, it is the kind that teaches one to struggle against injustice +and oppression, things which I know you hate as deeply as your son +does." A tremour came into her voice, and a slight blush into her +cheeks, as she added: "Your son is one of those remarkable men who are +willing to die for the suffering people." + +"But who are you?" he asked with a frown, "How did you get here? If you, +too, are one of those people you had better leave this town at once. I +don't want to get in trouble on account of you." + +They reached the inn, and he paused in front of it, leaning against a +waggon. + +"Never mind who I am," she returned. + +"But where is he? Has he been arrested? Good God, what has he been doing +to himself? What does he want of my old bones? Is he sorry his father is +still alive?" + +"You don't want your son to perish, do you?" she said rather +pugnaciously. "If you don't, you had better get the gendarmes off his +track." + +She went on arguing with renewed ardour. As he listened, a questioning +look came into his face. Instead of following her plea he scrutinised +her suspiciously. + +"But why should you pray for him so fervently," he asked significantly. +"Why should you run risks for his sake? What do you get out of it?" + +"Must one get something 'out of it' to do what is right?" + +"Ah, may the ghost take the whole lot of you!" Yossl said, with a wave +of his hand, and walked away. He felt sure that this young woman and his +son were in love, and he was shocked for the sake of Miriam, Makar's +divorced wife, as well as for his own. + +He made for a slushy narrow lane, but turned back, retracing his steps +in the direction of the house which was the Good Jew's headquarters, as +also the home of Miriam. It was the house of her uncle, Arye Weinstein, +the richest Pietist in Zorki. + + * * * * * + +The Good Jew occupied two expensively furnished rooms which were always +kept sacred to his use. They were known as "the rabbi's chambers" and +although the Righteous Man visited Zorki only once a year, nobody was +ever allowed so much as to sit down in his easy chair. One day, when +Weinstein caught his little girl playing in the "rabbi's bed room" with +a skull-cap which the holy man had left there, he flew into one of the +savage fits of temper for which he was dreaded, and slapped the child's +face till it bled. The rabbi's chambers were never swept or dusted until +a day or two before his arrival, and then half a dozen people worked day +and night to make things worthy of the exalted guest. The "rabbi's +parlour" opened into a vast room, by far the largest in the house, which +on Saturdays was usually turned into a synagogue, and was known in town +as "Weinstein's salon." + +Miriam was a very bright, quick-witted little woman, but she was not +pretty--a pale, sickly, defenceless-looking creature of the kind who +have no enemies even among their own sex. Her separation from Makar was +only a nominal affair, in fact, the divorce having been brought about +against the will of the young couple by her iron-willed uncle, who had +succeeded in embroiling Yossl with his son as well as with himself soon +after the true character of Makar's visits to Pani Oginska's house had +been discovered; but Makar and Miriam had become reconciled, through a +letter from him, and they had been in secret correspondence ever since. +Yossl never lost hope of seeing them remarried, and, in order to keep +the memory of his son fresh in Miriam's mind, he had obeyed the Good Jew +and made peace with the wealthy Pietist. + +Yossl was in charge of the town's weight-house and was commonly known as +"Yossl the weight-house man." When Feivish (Makar's real first name) was +old enough to be started on the Talmud, he left the weight-house to his +wife, devoting himself to the spiritual education of the boy. Every +time they sat down to the huge book he would pin the edge of Feivish's +shirt to his collar, leaving the child's back bare to the strap in his +hand. Whenever his wife protested he would bring her to terms by +threatening to tell the Good Jew that she would have her son brought up +as a dunce. He was going to make a "fattened scholar" of him. He was +going to fatten him on divine Law by main force, even as his wife +fattened her geese for Passover. He was going to show those +fish-blooded, sneering Oppositionists that they had no monopoly of the +Talmud. Often during his lesson a distracted look would come into +Feivish's dark little eyes, and Yossl's words fell on deaf ears. Then it +was that the thong would descend on the bare back. Feivish never cried. +As the blow fell, he would curl himself up with a startled look, that +haunted Yossl for hours after. Feivish turned out to be a most ardent +Pietist. Once, for example, in a very cold wintry night, after the Good +Jew had crossed a snow-covered lawn, Feivish, in a burst of devotion, +took off his boots and "followed in the foot-steps of the man of +righteousness" barefoot. + +For four years the young couple lived happily, their only woe being the +death of both children that had been born to them. But the Good Jew said +"God will have mercy," and Feivish "served his Lord with gladness." But +this did not last. Feivish was initiated into the world of free thought, +and gradually the fervent Pietist was transformed into a fervent +atheist. It was during that period that he first met Pavel and that his +wife's despotic uncle extorted a divorce from him. + + * * * * * + +While Yossl was twitting the red-headed Oppositionist in front of +Weinstein's house, Bathsheba, a daughter-in-law of the man of +substance, a plump, black-eyed beauty of the kind one's mind associates +with a Turkish harem, beckoned Miriam aside, in one of the rooms within, +offering her a piece of cake. + +"It's from a chunk the Good Jew has tasted," she said, triumphantly. +"Eat it, and your heart will be lighter." + +"It will help me as much as blood-letting helps a dead man," Miriam +answered with a smile. + +"Eat it, I say. You'll get letters more often if you do." For a woman to +exchange love letters with the man from whom she has been divorced is +quite a grave sin for a daughter of Israel to commit. The remedy +Bathsheba recommended was therefore something like the prayer of a thief +that the Lord may bless his business. But then Miriam questioned the +power of the rabbi's "leavings" to bring a blessing upon any business. +She smiled. + +"How do you know it is nonsense? Maybe it isn't, after all," Bathsheba +urged. + +"You're a foolish little dear." + +"If I were you I should eat it. What can you lose by it?" + +Maria, a Gentile servant who had been longer in the house than +Bathsheba, came in. She spoke Yiddish excellently and was almost like a +member of the family. + +"Take a bite and you will be blessed, Maria," Miriam joked, holding out +the cake to her. "It's from a piece the Good Jew has tasted." + +"If I was a Jewess I would," Maria retorted reproachfully. "It's a sin +to make mock of a Good Jew." + +The other two burst into a laugh. + +Left alone, Miriam was about to throw the cake away, but had not the +heart to do so. She sat eyeing it for some minutes and then, making fun +of herself, she bit off a morsel. She acted like the Jewess of the +anecdote, who, to be on the safe side, would kiss the cross and the +Hebrew prayer book at once. + + * * * * * + +An hour later Yossl was flaunting his son's Paris letter and cursing him +to a new crowd in front of the Good Jew's headquarters. + +"The ghost take him!" he said. "Indeed, the ghost is a well-travelled +fellow. He can get to Paris just as readily as he does to Zorki." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +MAKAR'S FATHER. + + +On Saturday morning Weinstein's salon was crowded with worshippers, all +married men in their praying shawls and skull-caps. A Good Jew is exempt +from praying with the congregation, his transports of religious fervour +being too sacred a proceeding for common mortals to intrude upon. +Accordingly, the Man of Righteousness was making his devotions in the +seclusion of the adjoining parlour. + +To a stranger unfamiliar with Pietist prayer meetings the crowd here +gathered would have looked for all the world like the inmates of the +violent ward in an insane asylum. Most of the worshippers were snapping +their fingers; the others were clapping their hands, clenching their +fists with all their might or otherwise gesticulating savagely. They +were running or jumping about, shrieking, sighing or intoning merrily, +while here and there a man seemed to be straining every bit of his +strength to shut his eyes as tightly as possible or to distort his face +into some painful or grotesque expression. The Gentiles of the province +called the Pietists Jumping Jacks. + +Some of the worshippers gesticulated merely because it was "correct +form"; others did so from force of habit, or by way of fighting off the +intrusion of worldly thoughts; still others for the same reason for +which one yawns when others do. But all these formed a small minority. +The bulk of the Pietists present, including several people of +questionable honesty in business matters, were honestly convulsed with a +contagion of religious rapture. The invisible proximity of the Man of +Righteousness, the sight of the door that concealed his holy presence, +keyed them up to the highest pitch of exaltation. Their ears followed +the "master of prayers" at the Stand, but their minds beheld the Good +Jew of Gornovo. All hearts converged at the mysterious spot behind that +door. That which sounded and looked like a pandemonium of voices and +gestures was in reality a chorus of uplifted souls with the soul of the +concealed man of God for a "master of prayers." + +Weinstein was slapping the wall with both hands. His large figure was +enveloped in the costliest praying-shawl in the room. All that was seen +of him were two wrists overgrown with red hair. Now and then he would +face about and fall to striding up and down meditatively. He was a +well-fed, ruddy-necked Jew of fifty with a sharp hooked nose sandwiched +in between two plump florid cheeks, and a small red beard. His +unbuttoned coat of a rich broadcloth reached down to his heels; his +trousers were tucked into the tops of well-polished boots. Once or twice +an unkempt, underfed little man in a tattered shawl and with a figure +and gait which left no doubt that he was a tailor by trade, barred +Weinstein's way, snapping his fingers at him; then the two took to +pacing the room together, shouting and chuckling in rapturous duet as +they moved along, as is written: "Serve the Lord with gladness, come +before His presence with singing," or "Because thou servedst not thy God +with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all +things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies." That the little +tailor did not enjoy an "abundance of all things" was evident from his +pinched face and broken shoes. He did not rank high enough in his trade +to have even Weinstein's clerk for a customer, yet at the Pietist +gatherings he addressed Weinstein himself by the familiar diminutive of +his first name and sometimes helped to spank him or to pelt him with +burrs out of his "gladness of heart." + +Yossl Parmet--Makar's father--was tiptoeing about the crowded room, +smiling and whispering fondly, as though confiding glad news to himself, +but his heart was not in his prayer. He was thinking of his son and the +young woman who had come to plead for him. Indeed, Yossl's piety had +deserted him long since. He clung to the Pietists for the sake of the +emotional atmosphere that enveloped it and from his sincere admiration +of the Good Jew's personality rather than from faith. He was fond of +Miriam and his heart was now torn between jealousy in her behalf and +anxiety about his son. + +The services over, silence fell upon the congregation. The Pietists were +folding up their shawls, or eyeing the floor expectantly. The minutes +were passing slowly. The stillness seemed to be growing in intensity. +Presently a song broke from somebody in a corner. It was a song without +words, a new tune especially composed for the occasion. Like most +"Gornovo melodies" it was meant to be gay, and like all of them it was +pervaded by the mixed sadness of the Exiled People and the brooding, +far-away plaint of their Slavic neighbours. There is a mingling of fire +and tears in the Pietist "hop." It isn't without reason that the most +rabid Oppositionist of Lithuania will sing them on the Rejoicing of the +Law. + +The others in the room had never heard the song before, yet several of +them fell to at once, seizing the tune by intuition. The rest joined in +gradually, until the whole assemblage was united in chorus. The import +of this kind of singing while the Good Jew is in the privacy of his room +is a plea that he may issue forth and grace the crowd with his presence +and "some law." They went through the tune again and again, gathering +zest as they mastered its few simple bars. The melody seemed to be +climbing up and down, or diving in and out; expostulating with somebody +as it did so, bewailing somebody or something, appealing in the name of +some dear event in the past or future. Unable to tell definitely what +their tune was saying or doing, the singers craved to see the speechless +song, to make out the words it seemed to be uttering, and because that +was impossible their hearts were agitated with objectless sympathy and +longing, and the rabbi was forgotten for awhile. They pitied the unknown +man who seemed to be climbing or diving all the more because it was in +their own voices that his incomprehensible words were concealed. + +Little by little, however, as the novelty of the air wore off, the +consciousness that they were beseeching the Man of Righteousness to come +out to them blent with their yearning sympathy for their melody. They +ardently believed that the Good Jew's soul had ascended on the wings of +his ecstasy to the Divine Presence. All eyes were on his door. An +indescribable ring of solemnity, of awe, of love and of prayer came into +their voices. Their faces were transfixed with it. The melody was +pouring out its very heart to the holy man. + +Suddenly it all died away. The door flew open and, preceded by a stout +"supervisor," appeared an elderly man with a flabby-lipped mouth and a +hooked little nose. He wore a long-skirted coat of black silk with a +belt of the same material wound several times round his waist, and a +round cap of sable and velvet. The crowd fell apart in breathless +excitement. As he advanced through the lane thus formed he was flushed +and trying to conceal his embarrassment in a look of grief. He seated +himself at a long table and shut his eyes. Now and then he heaved a +sigh, swaying his head silently, with absorbed mien. He was supposed to +be in a trance of lofty meditation, abandoned to thoughts and feelings +which were to bear his soul to heaven. + +The crowd was literally spellbound. Yossl Parmet was pale with unuttered +sobs. He was perhaps the only man in the room who perceived that the +holy man was ill at ease, and this gave him a sense of the Good Jew's +childlike purity which threw him into a veritable frenzy of reverence. +More than thirty years the master of multitudes and still blushing! When +Yossl was a young man he had changed his Good Jews several times. He had +adored them all, but he had not liked them. His soul had found no rest +until he moved to Zorki and met this Good Jew of Gornovo. Then he felt +himself in the presence of absolute sincerity, of unsophisticated warmth +of heart. This Good Jew was a naive man, timid and unassertive. He had +an unfeigned sense of his own supernatural powers, and was somewhat in +awe of them. He felt as though there was another, a holier being within +him and he feared that being in the same way as one possessed fears the +unholy tenant of his soul. + +Finally the Good Jew opened his eyes and began to speak. It was a simple +sermon on a text taken at random from the Bible before him, but his +listeners sought a hidden meaning, a mystical allusion, in the plainest +of his words or gestures. Yossl could have instructed him in every +branch of holy lore, yet he seized upon the exposition thirstily. In the +first place, he had seen Good Jews who were even less at home in the Law +than the Good Jew of Gornovo was, so that he felt grateful to him for +not being a downright ignoramus. In the second place, he knew that he +actually believed his own words to be inspired. + +A few minutes after the sermon the Good Jew beckoned Yossl to a seat by +his side. Makar's father accepted the invitation in a quiver of +obsequious gratitude. + +"How are you, Yossl? Any news of Feivish?" + +"He's in Paris now," Yossl answered with a gesture of disrelish and +speaking aloud, so that the entire crowd might hear him. He hated to +tell the holy man a lie, yet he did so readily, the occasion being his +best opportunity for giving the story wide circulation. + +"In Paris!" + +"Yes, he has been there since the beginning of summer. I have letters +from him." + +"Letters from Feivish!" + +"He wanted to show off I suppose. Wanted his father to see he's in +Paris. On my part he may go to perdition." + +"What is he doing there? Studying medicine in French?" + +"That's what he says in his letter. Yes, he has quite broken with +Judaism, rabbi, quite a Gentile. All that is required to make the +transformation complete is that he should extort bribes from Jews for +allowing them to breathe. One Jew he prevents from breathing +already"--pointing at himself. + +The rabbi swayed his head sympathetically. + +"What a misfortune! What a misfortune! Men like him could not be had for +the picking." + +"He has left a wound in my heart and it will not heal, rabbi. If this is +the kind of doctor he is going to be, he won't make much headway. 'I had +a vineyard,' rabbi," he went on in a lugubrious sing-song, quoting from +Isaiah, "'I fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it +with the choicest vine. What could have been done more to my vineyard +that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should +bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?'" + +"Don't grieve, my son, I forbid you, do you hear?" the Good Jew said, +limply. He was deeply touched. "Better give us a song, boys!" + +The song burst forth and was taken up by the glad crowd on the lawn, +some Gentiles, standing at a respectful distance, listening reverently. + +Yossl had uncovered to the rabbi only part of his heart's wound. Since +his son's compulsory divorce Weinstein had personified the cruelties and +injustices of the whole world to him. When a couple applies for a writ +of divorcement it is the duty of the rabbi to persuade them from the +step. God wants no severance of the marriage bond. "When a man divorces +his first wife, the altar weeps," says the Talmud. Yet Weinstein, who +had so brutally extorted such a divorce from Feivish, continued to be +looked upon as a pillar of the faith. All this had stirred a novel +feeling, a novel trend of thought in Yossl. + +The next morning Weinstein's salon was jammed with people begging for +admission to the Good Jew, who was in the next room. + +The scribes were busy writing applications, praying the rabbi to "awaken +the great mercy of the Master of Mercies." + +"My wife is ill, her name is Sarah, daughter of Tevye," one man +besought. "Do be so kind. If I don't get in at once it may be too late." + +Another applicant, with a crippled boy in his arms, sought a blessing +for the child and himself. One father, whose son had been declared a +blockhead by his teachers, wanted the Good Jew to pray that the boy +might get "a good head." A white-haired man was picking a quarrel with +two other Pietists who were trying to get in front of him. The old man's +married daughter was childless and her husband did not care for her, so +he wanted the rabbi to "give her children and grace in the eyes of her +spouse." Several others wanted dowries for their marriageable daughters. +That the Master of Mercies would grant the Good Jew's prayer in their +daughters' behalf was all the more probable because in cases of this +sort either the Good Jew himself or some of his well-to-do followers +usually came to the poor man's assistance. + +Yossl sat at the corner of the table watching the scene pensively when +Clara entered the room. The blood rushed to his face as he recognised +her, and he hastened to take her out into the road. + +"What are you doing in this town so long?" he then asked, in a rage. "I +thought you had left long since. What do you want of us all? Do you want +to get everybody in trouble?" + +"How will I get you in trouble? Am I the only Jewish woman who has come +to Zorki these few days? Have I no right to be here like everybody else? +Besides, it's to bid you good-bye that I want to see you now. I am going +away." + +Her few words, uttered with simple earnestness, had a softening effect +on him. + +"You look like a good girl," he said, frowning at her amicably. "Tell +me frankly: are you and my son having a love affair?" + +Clara coloured literally to the roots of her brown hair. She paused to +regain her self-possession and then said, with a smile at once +shamefaced and amused: + +"It is not true, Reb Yossl. What is more, your son and I are not even +acquainted." + +"Can that be possible!" + +"It's the absolute truth I am telling you, Reb Yossl." + +He shrugged his shoulder and proceeded to question her on his son's +case, on his mode of life before he was arrested, on the meaning of the +struggle to which he had dedicated himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +FROM CELLAR TO PALACE. + + +Meanwhile Pavel, Mme. Shubeyko, Masha, Mlle. Andronoff and her fiance, +the near-sighted judge with the fluffy hair, went on with their plot. A +considerable sum was needed to bribe the warden, the head keeper (a +bustling little man who was known in the conspiracy as the Sparrow), and +others. The plotters had five thousand rubles, and in order to obtain +the rest without delay Pavel went so far as to take his mother into the +secret. The countess received his story with a thrill of gratitude and +of a sense of adventure. After a visit to the bank, she handed him ten +thousand rubles in crisp rainbow-coloured one hundred ruble notes. She +was pale with emotion as she did so. Her heart was deeper in his +movement than he supposed. It was as if every barrier standing between +her and her son had been removed. She was a comrade of his now. + +"The only thing that worries me," she said for something to say, "is +uncle's visits. He has not been here for some time, but if he comes, I +shan't be able to look him in the face. He is a very good man at heart, +Pasha." + +"Still, you had better make no haste about trying to convert him," Pavel +answered, with a smile, struggling with the pile of notes. + +The bulk of the sum--eight thousand rubles--was to be paid by Mme. +Shubeyko to the warden, half of it in advance and the other half upon +the carrying out of the project. Rodkevich pretended to receive the four +thousand rubles as a loan. He barred all frank discussion of the scheme, +hinting that he was scarcely a master in his own prison and that all he +could do was to "overlook things under pressure of business at times." +As a matter of fact, he scarcely incurred any risks. + +Pavel missed Clara keenly. A feverish yearning feeling had settled in +him, often moving him to tears, but he fought it bravely. Once or twice +he went to the Beak and indulged in a feast of self-torture, but +otherwise he worked literally day and night, seeing people, +deliberating, scheming. The only manifestation of his nervousness was an +exaggerated air of composure, and as this was lost on his fellow +plotters, nothing was farther from their thoughts than that he +experienced a sensation as though his heart were withering within his +breast and that the cause of it was Clara Yavner. + +When he received word of her return he said to himself, in a turmoil of +joy, terror and impatience, that he could not bear it any longer and +that he would tell her all the next time they were alone. + +He saw her the very next day, at the trunk shop. Both blushed violently. +The first minutes of their conversation were punctuated with nervous +pauses, like the first talk of people who have been reconciled after a +long estrangement. He said to himself: "Now is the time," and vaguely +felt confident of success, yet he was still in awe of her and all he +managed to do was to turn the conversation upon his mother. + +"I should like you to meet her," he said. "She has heard of you." + +"Your mother?" she asked in shamefaced astonishment. + +"She is a very good woman," Pavel observed, gravely. "She is in sympathy +with the movement, you know, although it was only the other day I +brought her the first few things to read. If it isn't asking too much I +should like to introduce you to her, Clara Rodionovna. She would be +delighted." + +He paused, but she maintained her air of respectful curiosity, so he +went on. "She is very enthusiastic. She would like to know some of the +Miroslav radicals, and I took the liberty of telling her about you. I +need not tell you that I spoke in a very, very general way about you." + + * * * * * + +One afternoon the Palace, which the trunk-dealer's daughter had known +all her life as a mysterious, awe-inspiring world whose threshold people +of her class could never dream of crossing, the Palace threw open its +imposing doors to her, and she was escorted by Pavel up the immense +staircase and into the favorite room of Countess Anna Nicolayevna +Varoff. As it was an unheard-of thing for a Jewish girl to visit the +Palace, it was agreed, as a safeguard against the inquisitiveness of the +servants, that she should be known to them by such a typically Russian +name as Daria Ivanovna Morosoff (Morosova). + +Barring the two great statues and an ancient cabinet inlaid with ivory +and mother-of-pearl, the room was rather below her undefined +anticipations. Her preconceived notion of the place soon wore off, +however, under a growing sense of venerable solidity, of a quiet +magnificence that was a revelation to her. + +"I'm awfully glad to know you, Clara Rodionovna, awfully," the countess +said when the first formalities of greeting were over, and they were +all seated. This Jewish girl was the first Nihilist she had ever met +(indeed, Pavel was only "Pasha" after all), and she identified her in +her mind with every revolutionary assassination and plot she had read +about. She was flushed with excitement and so put out that she was +playing with Pavel's fingers as she spoke, as a mother will do with +those of her little boy. As to Clara, she had an oppressive feeling as +though the pair of big musty statues, graceful, silent, imposing, were +haughtily frowning on her presence under this roof. Pavel seemed to be a +different young man. She scarcely seemed to be acquainted with him. Only +the sight of Anna Nicolayevna fondling his fingers warmed her heart to +both. On the other hand, her own smile won the hostess. + +The countess released Pavel's hand, moved over to the other end of the +sofa and huddled herself into the corner, thrusting out her graceful +elbows and great pile of auburn hair. The presence of Pavel kept her ill +at ease. Finally she said: "I think you had better leave us two women to +ourselves, Pasha. We shall understand each other much better then, won't +we, Clara Rodionovna?" + +"I hope so," Clara answered, awkwardly. + +Pavel withdrew. In his absence their embarrassment only increased. + + * * * * * + +The next time Clara and Pavel met, in the trunk-shop, he asked her when +she would call on his mother again. + +"Oh, I don't know. The point is I don't know what to do with my hands +there," she said, with a laugh. "I can't seem to shake off the feeling +that I am in the house of--in 'the Palace,' don't you know." + +It was a hot day, but the air in the basement was quite cool. Motl was +silently painting a trunk, and Pavel was conscious of the oppressive +smell of the paint and of the impact of the brush against the wood as he +answered, with pained stress in his voice. + +"But my mother does not feel like a countess. She is above and beyond +all such things." + +"I know she is. Only I somehow don't manage to feel at home there." + +"But it's only a matter of habit I am sure. You'll get over it. You +won't feel that way next time. You must promise me to call to-morrow." +It was as if Clara's was a superior position in life and as if that +superiority lay in this, that her home was a squalid trunk-shop, while +his was a palace. + +"If I do, my mind will be in a whirl again," she laughed. + +"Oh, it isn't as bad as all that. You must promise me to call on her." + +"Can't we put it off--indefinitely?" + +"Clara Rodionovna!" + +His imploring voice threatened to draw from him the great yearning plea +that was waiting to be heard, but this same entreating voice of his +thrilled her so that she hastened to yield. + +"Very well," she said. + +"Will you come? Oh, it's so kind of you. I am ever so much obliged to +you--but I declare I am raving like a maniac," he interrupted himself +with a queer smile that forthwith lapsed into an expression of rage. +"What I really want to say is that I love you." + +The lines of her face hardened. Her rich complexion burst into flame. +She looked gravely at nothing, as he proceeded: + +"It seems to me as though I had felt that way ever since that Pievakin +episode, Clara Rodionovna. I owe so much to you. If it had not been for +you I might still be leading the life of a knave and an idiot. What you +did on that occasion served to open my eyes and showed me the difference +between light and darkness. And now it seems to me that if you were +mine, it would infuse great energy and courage into me. I have got so +used to seeing you, I hate to think of being apart from you for a single +moment. Oh, you are so dear to me, I am so happy to sit by your side, to +be allowed to say all this to you." + +"You are dear to me, too," she said in great embarrassment. + +He grasped her hand in silence, his face a burning amorous red. + +On their way to the Beak, after another outburst from him, she spoke in +measured accents, firm and sad, like the voice of fate. + +"I don't know where this will lead us, for either of us or both may be +arrested at any time, and then this happiness would add so much poison +to the horrors of prison life. Besides, even if we are not arrested, as +long as present conditions prevail our love would have to remain hidden +underground, like our dear movement----" + +"My mother will know it. I want her to know it; and if it is possible to +tell your parents, too----" + +"Oh, it would kill them. Theirs is an entirely different world." + +"Then, for the present, let them be none the wiser for it. As to my +mother, she likes you very, very much already and when she hears of it +she will love you to distraction, Clara Rodionovna. My friends of the +party will know it, too, of course, and what do we care for the rest of +this wretched world? But oh, I do wish you could tell your mother, or +could I speak to her?" + +"Oh, that's absolutely impossible," she said in a voice vibrant with a +suggestion of tears and the music of love at once. "Your mother may +understand me. We can speak in the same language at least, but my poor +parents--one might as well tell them I am dead. Well, when the Will of +the People has scored its great victory and Russia is free, then, if we +are alive, we shall announce it to my poor parents." + +He picked up a stone and flung it with all his might. He was in a fidget +of suppressed exultation. Now that his suspense was over, they changed +parts, as it were. The gnawing gloom which had tantalised him during the +past few weeks had suddenly burst forth in torrents of sunshine; whereas +in her case the quiet light-hearted happiness which had been the colour +of her love had given way to an infatuated heart filled with anguish. + + * * * * * + +He told his mother the news the very next morning. The explanation took +place in the immense ball-room. It was a windy morning outside, and they +were marching up and down the parquette of polished light oak, arm in +arm. Presently they paused at one of the windows facing the garden. They +could faintly hear the soughing of the wind in the trees. They stood +gazing at the fluttering leaves, when he said, musingly: + +"I have something to tell you, mother. I told Mlle. Yavner I loved her +and I want you to congratulate me." + +"Mlle. Yavner?" she asked, with a look of consternation. + +"Yes, Mamma dear, I love her and she loves me and she is the dearest +woman in the world and you are not going to look upon it in a manner +unworthy of yourself, are you, dear little mamma mine?" He seized her +fingers and fell to kissing them and murmuring: "My dear little mamma, +my dear little mamma." His endearments were too much for her. + +"Pasha, Pasha! What are you doing with yourself," she sobbed bitterly. + +"Mamma darling! Mamma darling!" he shouted fiercely. "You are not going +to give way to idiotic, brutal, Asiatic notions that are not really +yours. Another year or two, perhaps less, and all Russia will be free +from them and from all her chains, and then one won't have to be shocked +to hear that a man and a woman who love each other and belong to each +other are going to marry. Mamma dear, my darling little mamma! You are +the noblest woman to be found. You are not going to go back on your son +because he is trying to live like a real human being and not like a +hypocrite and a brute." + +She dared not cry any more. + +When Clara came, the countess, turning pale, clasped her vehemently, as +though pleading for mercy. Clara felt bewildered and terror-stricken, +and after some perfunctory kisses she loosened her arms, but the Gentile +woman detained her in an impetuous embrace, as she said: "Be good to me, +both of you. He is all I have in the world." As she saw an embarrassed +smile on Clara's beautifully coloured face, she bent forward with a +sudden impulse and drew her to her bosom again, as though she had just +made the discovery that the Jewish girl was not unlike other girls after +all, that there was nothing preternatural about her person or speech. +Whereupon Clara kissed her passionately and burst into tears. + +The countess caressed her, poured out the innermost secrets of her heart +to her. This Jewish girl whom she had only seen once before heard from +her the story of her past life, of her childhood, of her two unhappy +marriages, of her thirst for comradeship with her son, of her +conversion. The two women became intimate friends, although Clara spoke +comparatively little. + +Nevertheless, that night Anna Nicolayevna vainly courted sleep. Her +heart was in her mouth. She wished she could implore her son to break +the engagement, to sever connection with the movement, to abandon all +his perilous and unconventional pursuits. But she knew that she would +never have the courage to do so. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +AN UNFORESEEN SUGGESTION. + + +Pavel's prediction concerning Yossl came true, but the identity of the +province to which the missing medical student belonged and the one in +which the unknown Nihilist had been arrested escaped the notice of the +secret service, and the Zorki gendarme officer contented himself with +appropriating the Paris letter. Chance, however, soon solved the riddle +for the authorities: a prisoner from Zorki, a drunkard charged with +petty larceny, recognised Makar in the prison yard. + +It was Masha who brought the news to Pavel and Clara. + +"The general of gendarmes was there, the assistant procureur, my brother +and the warden," she said, describing the scene when Parmet was first +addressed by his name in prison. "It was in the office. When he was +brought in, my brother says his heart--my brother's heart, I mean--began +to beat fast. The assistant procureur offered him a chair." She paused, +with an appealing smile, her hand to her bosom. "My heart, too, is +beating fearfully at this minute, as I picture the scene. I am too +imaginative, I am afraid. Well, he pulled up a chair, the assistant +procureur and said: 'Be seated, Monsieur Parmet.' The prisoner started a +little, just a little, don't you know, and then he smiled and began to +rub his eyes, as if he had just been awakened. The general got angry and +said now there was no use for him to make believe and to keep his mouth +shut and the assistant procureur said very politely he might as well +tell them a little more about himself and the people he knew in +Miroslav, as they were well known to the gendarmes anyhow. They coaxed +him and coaxed him and coaxed him until he shouted: 'As to myself I have +the honour of being a member of the Party of the Will of the People. As +to those I know in Miroslav, I assure you I don't know anybody here.' +But didn't he tease them! 'I hoped to form some connections here,' he +said, 'but then you were foolish enough to arrest me without giving me a +chance. The St. Petersburg gendarmes will laugh at you when they hear of +the kind of job you have made of it.'" + +Pavel roared. He thought Makar's taunting answer would induce the local +gendarme office to detain him in the hope of discovering his prospective +"connections." + +"Only why should he have said he was a member of the Party of the Will +of the People? That will aggravate his case," Clara said. + +"That was the dream of his life--to say that, and to say it +triumphantly, to some gendarme officers. At any rate, we have no time to +lose." + +That afternoon Pavel had a talk with Makar from the top of the hill +overlooking the prison yard. + +"Hurrah!" Makar's handkerchief flashed back in answer to his first +"hello." "They know my name. I had some fun with them." + +"It was all right, only for the sake of everything that is noble, don't +aggravate your case. Otherwise everything looks bright. Answer no more +of their questions." + +"Crazy to wag my tongue. Have not spoken so long. I am trying to make a +convert of my guard. Pastime." + +"Don't, for God's sake don't, or you'll ruin it all. Promise to keep +silent. Do you?" + +"Don't get angry. I can see your handkerchief gnashing its teeth. Only +one thing more. May I?" + +"Hurry up." + +"Here, in prison I am openly a citizen of the Social Republic, and the +Czar is powerless to subdue me. I am in a cell. What more can he do with +me? But here, in this cell, where his power is most complete, I openly +defy him, all his gendarmes and army notwithstanding." + +Pavel went away, cursing and laughing. + + * * * * * + +Every scheme of the conspirators turned out to be beset with +insurmountable difficulties. Clara did not tell Pavel all she knew and +made light of those obstacles with which he was acquainted, but in her +own heart she was extremely uneasy. + +One evening Pavel sat on a bench in front of a public house, smoking a +cheap pipe. He had a loaded pistol in his pocket and a dagger under his +vest. The prison was a short distance round the third corner. When one +of the customers of the public house seated himself by his side Pavel +engaged him in conversation, talking garrulously in the manner of a +humble, careworn government clerk. + +At last a way had been found for the provision man to take Makar out of +the prison yard. This was what kept Pavel in this out-of-the-way spot. +In the near vicinity of the inn stood a droshky. The appearance of the +provision waggon, full of empty sacks and some barrels, at a corner +diagonally across the street was to serve as a signal for Pavel to walk +up to a deserted ditch-bridge, where the runaway was expected to emerge +from under the sacks and to put on a military cap. Then Makar and +Boulatoff would gain the droshky, mount it, and be driven to the +Palace--the best hiding place one could find in all Miroslav. + +Pavel was calm, determined, ready to shoot and to be shot at. By degrees +he grew fidgety. Presently Clara passed along. He rose to his feet and +went off in the opposite direction, the two meeting in the next street. + +"It was a fizzle to-day, but it'll be all right, Pasha," she said in a +cheery, matter-of-fact voice. "As ill luck would have it, there were +some people about." + +Pavel's brows contracted. "He'll try again, of course." + +"Certainly. He will be there in four days." + +"Four days! Couldn't he make it sooner?" + +"I'll let you know." + +"Wait, dearest. Are you sure the people in the prison are not getting +suspicious about you?" He had asked the question and she had answered it +more than once before. + +"I don't think they are. Mme. Shubeyko and the Sparrow are the only ones +who know all about it. As to Rodkevitch, he understands it all, of +course, but he pretends not to. The Sparrow has his 'bosom friend' among +the keepers, but that man does not know anything about me. I am quite +sure of it." + +"The fewer who know what you are doing there the better, of course. +Don't be foolhardy, my charming one. Oh, I do wish it was all over. +Mother wants you to go to the country with her, and I should join you +two for some time." + +With a passionate handshake they parted, Clara directing her steps to +the prison building. The tremulous solicitude of his warning, his tender +concern for her safety left a glow of happiness and devotion in her. She +visioned him with his pistol and dagger and her heart was crushed with +anxiety. With his hot-blooded temerity he was apt to act rashly, to use +violence and stake his own life and Makar's before it was necessary. +Pavel's mode of taking away the prisoner had never appealed to her +strongly, and now the idea was growing on her of stealing a march on +Pavel, of bringing about Makar's liberation when her lover was not on +hand. And the more she thought of thus repaying his loving care for +herself the keener became her joy in the plan. + +Still, the general situation looked so discouraging, that with all her +thrills of amorous delight, she was in a state of black despair. The +truth of the matter was that the provision man, who was eager to earn a +few hundred rubles and to be plucky, had proved to be a most unreliable, +boastful coward. Clara was cudgelling her brain for some new scheme, for +some new line of action, when an important suggestion came from an +unforeseen quarter. Mme. Shubeyko arrived at the prison, all in a +flutter with a discovery: Father Michail, the prison priest, bore +considerable resemblance to Makar. + +"That's so, but what of it?" Clara said between irritation and agreeable +surprise. + +"What of it! Why,--I have thought it all out, you may be sure of that. +It all occurred to me only an hour ago. Even less," she said with that +silly smile of hers which usually so annoyed Pavel and which at this +moment exasperated Clara even more than it would her quick-tempered +lover. + +"What did occur to you?" Clara asked, with the least bit of venom on the +"did." + +Mme. Shubeyko started to explain, but her listener divined the rest +herself: Makar might pass out in the disguise of a priest, while Father +Michail was with the prisoners. + +"It's an excellent idea!" she murmured gravely. She could scarcely bring +herself to believe that the plan had emanated from an absurd brain like +that of the woman before her. + +"Someone could detain Father Michail until it was all safely over," Mme. +Shubeyko went on. "He's awfully fond of card-playing, and if a pretty +young lady like yourself was his partner he would never have the heart +to get up from the table, I know he wouldn't." + +The Sparrow, however, overruled the whole plan. Father Michail had been +connected with the prison for twenty years and the two gatemen knew him +as they did their own wives. What was more, the day gateman and the +priest were particularly fond of each other and often exchanged jokes. + +Clara's hands dropped to her sides. Then she clenched a fist and said: +"Oh, nonsense. He'll never know. If Father Michail did not speak to him +he wouldn't think it strange, would he?" + +"No, but the gateman might speak to him. Besides, you'll have to get up +early to fool him, lady." Every officer in the prison building had his +nickname, and this vigilant gateman who was a very fat man was known as +Double Chin. He seemed to be dozing half the time; but the Sparrow +assured Clara that when his little eyes were shut they saw even better +than when they were open. + +"Nonsense. Your imagination carries you too far. Anyhow, nothing +venture, nothing have. We must get that man out." + +"Ready to serve you, young lady, only if I may say so, I don't like the +plan at all, young lady." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +VLADIMIR FINDS HIS CAUSE. + + +The next morning, as Clara walked along Kasimir Street, she saw Volodia +Vigdoroff, her cousin, talking and laughing exuberantly to two elderly +men in front of the flashy window of a drug store. One of his listeners +wore a military uniform. It was Dr. Lipnitzky (Jewish physicians had not +yet been proscribed from the Russian army)--a grey-haired, +smooth-shaven, pudgy little man with three medals across his breast. It +was at the Turkish war that he had won these decorations. Clara could +never look at him without feeling a taste of sickness in her mouth like +the one she had felt one day shortly after the war, when she was sick in +bed and the little doctor, bending over, shouted to her to open her +mouth wider. The best physician in town, he was the terror of his +uneducated co-religionists. When a Jewish housewife paid him his fee in +copper instead of silver, or neglected to wrap it up in paper, he would +make an ugly scene, asking the poor woman at the top of his voice when +she and others like her would learn to live like human beings. +Sometimes, when a family failed to pay him altogether, pleading poverty, +he would call them a lot of prevaricating knaves with a snug little +hoard in the old woman's stocking, and carry off a copper pan or brass +candlestick. In every case of this sort, however, the pan or the brass +candlestick was sure to come back, sometimes with a ruble or two into +the bargain. + +The other man to whom Vigdoroff was speaking was Paul Zundel, the +musical autocrat of the province. He was as small of stature and as +irascible as Dr. Lipnitzky--a grey-haired dandy with a Mexican +complexion and a pair of long black side whiskers tipped with white. He +was a graduate of a German conservatory and spoke several languages with +illiterate fluency. + +They were both bachelors and both were frequent visitors at the +governor's house, where they were liked as much for the money they +usually lost in cards (although in other houses they were known as sharp +players) as for their professional services. They spent large sums on +the education of Jewish children and were particularly interested in the +spread of modern culture among their people. In other words, they +advocated and worked for the assimilation of their people with the +"deep-rooted" population. When a Talmud boy was ambitious to give up his +divine studies for "Gentile books" and his old-fashioned garb for a +gymnasium uniform, the two eccentric bachelors were his two stars of +hope. + +Vigdoroff overtook Clara as she turned the next corner. They had not met +since the night when they quarrelled in front of Boyko's court. + +"I didn't see you until I happened to turn round," he said. + +"He is trying to prove that he is not afraid of being seen in my +company," she thought to herself, as she said aloud: "I saw you talking +to Dr. Lipnitzky and Zundel." + +They walked in silence a few steps. Then he uttered with a smile: + +"Have you taken a vow to give us a wide berth?" + +"Not at all." + +"Father and mother are always at me for it. They think I am to blame for +your sudden estrangement." + +"Nobody is to blame, and there is no estrangement. Why use such words?" + +"Is it only a matter of words? They are accustomed to look upon you and +me as brother and sister. Do you deny that our roads have parted?" + +"If they have, then, what need is there of writing at the bottom of the +picture: 'This is a lion?'" she asked testily. "If it's a lion it's a +lion." + +"Would it be better to shut one's eyes to the truth? As for me, common +ordinary mortal that I am, I try to call a spade a spade." + +He spoke with venom, but it was all perfunctory and they were both aware +of it. Then he described, with exaggerated ardour, the successes +achieved by the Pupils' Aid Society in which he was now actively +interested. + +Since their talk on the bench in front of Boyko's Court he had been +longing for some humanitarian cause, for one unassociated with the +hazards of the revolutionary movement. He would prove to Clara that he +was no inferior creature. Her taunt that he had seized upon the Jewish +question, in the course of their debate, merely as a drowning man seizes +at a straw, and the implication that no phase of the problem of human +suffering made the slightest appeal to him had left a cruel sting in his +heart. Since then his thoughts had often turned upon the Jewish +question, until he found his "cause" in the dissemination of Russian +culture among his people. Formerly he had been contented with being +"assimilated" himself. Now he was going to dedicate his best energies to +the work of lessening that distance between Jew and Gentile, which was, +so he argued, the source of all the woes of his race. As good luck would +have it, there was such a thing as difference of opinion. "It is not +anxiety about my 'precious skin,'" he would picture himself saying to +Clara, "that keeps me from reading underground prints. Did I believe in +them I should do as you do. But if you think I live for myself only you +don't know me. I have another cause, one to which my convictions call me +and to which I am going to give all that is in me." + +"And you?" he asked. "Still planting a paradise on earth?" + +She smiled. + +"Well, as for me, I content myself with working on such a humble +beginning as a little bridge across the gap between Jew and Gentile." + +He consciously led the way past a Gentile of enormous bulk, who stood in +the doorway of a furrier's shop. It was Rasgadayeff, the landlord of the +Vigdoroffs' residence, he himself occupying the inner building on the +same courtyard. He was a wealthy merchant with the figure of a barrel +and arms that looked as though they had been hung up to dry, an +impetuous Great-Russian, illiterate and good-hearted, shrewd in making +money, but with no sense of its value when it came to spending it. Every +other week he went off on a hideous spree, and then, besides smashing +costly mirrors, which is the classical sport of the drunken +Great-Russian merchant, he would indulge in such pastimes as offering a +prize to every ten-year-old boy who would drain a tumbler of vodka, +setting fire to live horses or wrecking the furniture in his own house. +On such days his wife often sought shelter with the Vigdoroffs for fear +of being beaten to death. Until a few years ago he had stood at the head +of the fur trade. Since then a Jewish dealer, who went off on no +sprees, had been a formidable competitor to him. Rasgadayeff now hated +Jews in general as he had never done before. The Vigdoroffs were an +exception. He was sincerely fond of the whole family, and entrusted the +old man with some of his most important business secrets. + +"Our humblest regards to Clara Rodionovna!" he said, with gay suavity, +taking off his hat. "As also to Vladimir Alexandrovich!" + +They returned the salute, and were about to pass on, but he checked +them. + +"A rose of a girl, I tell you that," he went on, addressing himself to +Vladimir, while he looked at the girl with rather offensive admiration. +"Young men are fools nowadays. If I were one of them I should take no +chances with a lassie like that. A plum, a bouquet, a song-bird of a +mademoiselle. I should propose and get her and waste no time, or--one, +two, three, and the lovey-dovey may be snapped up by some other fellow." + +Clara, who was accustomed to this sort of pleasantry from him, scarcely +heard what he said. She was smilingly making ready to bow herself away, +when her cousin asked of the Great-Russian: + +"And how is her Illustriousness? Have you seen her lately?" + +"She was here yesterday. Quite stuck on you, Vladimir Alexandrovich. +Sends humblest regards. 'When is your learned young friend going to +call,' she says. You have a sage of a cousin, Clara Rodionovna, an eagle +of a fellow, a cabinet minister!" + +"All right," Vladimir returned, with an amused smile, yet reddening with +satisfaction. + +Clara remarked to herself that her cousin was flaunting his successes +with Gentiles before her. When they resumed their walk she inquired +reluctantly: + +"Who is 'her Illustriousness'?" + +"Oh, that's that lame tramp of a woman, Princess Chertogoff," he +rejoined, with gestures of contempt and amusement, yet inwardly tingling +with vanity at his acquaintance with her impecunious "Illustriousness." +The wealthy Great-Russian was a large holder of Princess Chertogoff's +promissory notes, and it was at his house where Vladimir had met her on +several occasions. The lame noblewoman knew that Rasgadayeff was fond of +the Vigdoroffs. When she saw the young man last she had, by way of +currying favour with her creditor, asked the educated son of his +"favourite Jew" to call on her whenever he was in the mood for it, and +to "let her hear what was going on among wise men and authors." + +Vladimir and Clara passed on. He spoke of Rasgadayeff's latest escapades +and Clara listened with little bursts of merriment, but their voices did +not ring true. Presently they exchanged greetings with Ginsburg, the +notorious money-lender of Miroslav, a small, red-headed man with +crumpled cheeks and big bulging eyes. + +"Here is another treat for you!" Vladimir said, in high spirits. +"Another specimen of moral perfection. Some gigantic hand must have +grabbed him by the head, squeezing it like a paper ball till the eyes +started from their sockets, and then thrown him into a waste basket. +That's the way he looks." She smiled awkwardly. + +He then called her attention to two bewigged old women, both of them +apparently deaf, who were talking into each other's ear, and then to the +picturesque figure of a dumpy little shoemaker with a new, +carefully-shined pair of topboots in his hand. Clara had never been +interested in things of this sort, but this time, in her eagerness to +get away, added to a growing sense of awkwardness, his observations +literally grated on her nerves. At last, when they reached a crossing, +she stopped, putting out her hand. + +"Somebody is waiting for me," she said. "Remember me to uncle and aunt, +will you?" + +"I will. Won't you look in at all?" As she turned to take the side +street, he added: "Our roads do part, then." + +Her appointment was with Orlovsky. She had not attended the gatherings +of the Circle at his house for a considerable time. He conjectured that +she was engaged in some revolutionary undertaking of importance. He had +missed her so abjectly that he had finally decided to avow his love. +This was what he had made the appointment for. When she came, however, +he cowed before her rich complexion and intelligent eyes and talked of +the affairs of the Circle. A similar attempt at a love declaration was +made that evening by Elkin, with similar results. By way of opening the +conversation he indulged in a series of virulent taunts upon her long +absence and the great revolutionary secrets that he said were written on +her face, after which his efforts to turn the conversation into romantic +channels proved futile. He came away agonised with jealousy. He was +jealous of the girl and he was jealous of the mysterious conspiracy in +which she seemed to be engaged and into which he, her revolutionary +sponsor, had not been initiated. + + * * * * * + +As to Vigdoroff, he was seized with a desire to avail himself of +Princess Chertogoff's invitation, not merely to gratify his personal +ambition, but also, so he assured himself, as part of his "cause." On +his way thither he paused once or twice in front of shop windows to +ascertain whether his face was not strikingly Semitic. "Not offensively +so, anyhow," he concluded before a mirror at the entrance to a furniture +store. The mirror reflected a well-made, athletic-looking young man one +could have told for a college man through a veil. The picturesque +irregularity of his features, somewhat flat in the middle of the face, +drew an image of culture, of intellectual interest. He felt on his +mettle. He would make a favourable impression, and that impression was +to be another step across the distance not only between Gentile society +and himself, but between all Jews and all Gentiles. His visit to the +noblewoman was a mission. He was in an exalted mood. + +At the house of Princess Chertogoff he found a cavalry officer and an +officer of the imperial guards. He was received with patronising +urbanity. The hostess introduced the two young officers as her sons, +come from St. Petersburg to take a glimpse at their old mother, and +Vigdoroff as "one of the brilliant young intellects of our town." This +was her excuse before her sons for having invited a Jew to the house and +Vigdoroff was not unaware of it. The cavalryman's face was round and +stern, while his brother's was oblong and smiling. When they were drunk, +which happened quite often, their faces would swap expressions. It was +chiefly owing to their expensive escapades that their mother's fortune +had passed into the coffers of usurers. The two uniformed men left +almost immediately, pleading a pressing engagement. + +The welcome Vladimir found at this house was one extended by a patroness +of the fine arts to a devotee of letters. It was not long before +Vigdoroff found himself fully launched on a favourite subject. Russia's +supremacy in modern literature and her false modesty became clearer to +him with every new work of fiction that came from the foreign masters. +The best models of the German, French or English novel were tainted with +artificiality. Russia alone produced stories that were absolutely free +from powder and rouge. He dwelt on Zola's _L'Assommoir_ and Daudet's +_Nabob_, both of which had appeared a short time before, and each of +which was looked upon as its author's masterpiece. He saw that his +hostess neither understood nor cared for these things; that he was +making a fool of himself; yet, being too ill at ease to stop, he went +sliding down hill. He spoke by heart as it were, the sound of his own +voice increasing his embarrassment. + +The princess was listening with an air of pompous assent, barely +following the general drift of his talk. Her majestic crutches terrified +him. + +A man servant brought in a silver samovar and a tray of Little-Russian +cookies. As Vigdoroff took up his glass of tea the princess said: + +"I did not know you were so much of a Russian patriot. Quite an unusual +thing in an educated young man these days. I certainly agree with you +that Turgeneff is a good writer. He is perfectly charming." + +Later on she asked, with lazy curiosity and in her pampered enunciation: + +"Do you really think our novelists greater than the great writers of +France?" + +"I certainly do." + +"That's interesting," she said, preparing to get rid of him. + +"You see, the average Russian represents a remarkable duality. He is +simple-hearted and frank, like a child, yet he is possessed of an +intuitive sense of human nature that would be considered marvellous in +a sage. In addition, he is the most soulful fellow in the world, and to +turn his soul inside out, to himself as well as to others, is one of his +ruling passions. That accounts for the inimitable naturalness and the +ardent human interest of our literature. Whether Russia knows how to +construct machinery or not, she certainly knows how to write." + +"You do love Russia, and literature, too"--yawning demonstratively. "I +had an idea Hebrews were only interested in money matters." She smiled, +an embarrassed smile in which there was as much malice as apology, and +dismissed him quite unceremoniously. + +He got into the street with his face on fire. It was as if he had been +subjected to some brutal physical indignities. "'I didn't know you were +so much of a Russian patriot,'" he recalled in his agony. "Of course, +I'm only a Jew, not a Russian. It makes no difference how many centuries +my people have lived and suffered here. And I, idiot that I am, make a +display of my love for Gogol, Turgeneff, Dostoyevski, as if I, 'a mere +Jew,' had a right to them! She must have thought it was all affectation, +Jewish cunning. As if a Jew could care for anything but 'money matters.' +The idea of one of my race caring for books, and for Gentile books, +too!" + +He was as innocent of the world of money as was Clara's father. As to +the great Russian writers, they were not merely favourite authors with +him. They were saints, apostles, of a religion of which he was a fervent +devotee. This, in fact, was the real "cause" which he had mutely served +for the past six or seven years. Their images, the swing and rhythm of +their sentences, the flavour of their style, the odour of the pages as +he had first read them--all this was a sanctuary to him. Yet he had +always felt as if he had no right to this devotion, as if he were an +intruder. This was the unspoken tragedy of his life. + +Since a boy of ten, when he entered the gymnasium, he had been crying +out to Russia, his country, to recognise a child in him--not a +step-child merely. And just because he was looked upon as a step-child +he loved his native land even more passionately than did his +fellow-countrymen of Slavic blood. + + * * * * * + +Alexander, or Sender, Vigdoroff, Vladimir's father, was known among his +co-religionists as Sender the Arbitrator. His chief source of income was +petition-writing and sundry legal business, but the Jews of Miroslav +often submitted their differences to him. These he settled by the force +of an imperturbable and magnetic disposition rather than through any +special gift of judgment and insight. He was full of anecdotes and +inaggressive humour. It was said of him that people who came to his +house obdurate and bitter "melted like wax" in his sunny presence. As a +rule, indeed, it was the contending parties themselves who then found a +way to an amicable solution of the point at issue, but the credit for it +was invariably given to Sender the Arbitrator, and his reputation for +wisdom brought him some Gentile patrons in addition to his Jewish +clientele. His iron safe always contained large sums in cash or +valuables entrusted to him by others. When a young couple were engaged +to be married the girl's marriage-portion was usually deposited with +Sender the Arbitrator. When security was agreed upon in connection with +some contract the sum was placed in the hands of Sender the Arbitrator. + +His stalwart figure, blond, curling locks and toothless smile; his +frilled shirt-front, everlasting brown frock-coat and huge meerschaum +cigar-holder--all this was as familiar to the Jews of Miroslav as the +public buildings of their town. The business of petition-writing was +gradually passing into the hands of younger and better educated men, +graduated lawyers regularly admitted to the bar, and his income was +dwindling. "I could arbitrate any misunderstanding under the sun except +the one between Luck and myself," he used to say, smiling toothlessly. +Still, he made a comfortable income, and money was spent freely not only +on his household but on all sorts of hangers-on. Vladimir's education +cost him more than his means warranted. Besides keeping him at the +gymnasium and then at the university he had hired him private teachers +of French, German and music. "There are a thousand Gentiles to every +Jew," was one of his sayings. "That's why every Jew should possess as +much intelligence as a thousand Gentiles. Else we shall be crushed." He +was something like a connecting link between the old world and the new. +He had a large library, mostly made up of German and Hebrew books. His +house was the haunt of "men of wisdom," that is, people who wrote or +thought upon modern topics in the language of Isaiah and Jeremiah, +free-thinkers whose source of inspiration were atheistic ideas expounded +in the Holy Tongue; yet on Saturday nights his neighbours would gather +in his drawing room to discuss foreign politics and to chant psalms in +the dark. He had the head of an agnostic and the heart of an orthodox +Jew. + +It was late in the afternoon when Vladimir reached home. His father was +in the library, which was also his office, conversing with his +copyist--a dapper little man whom his employer described as "an artistic +penman and an artistic fool." The windows were open. The room was +filled with twilight and with warm air that seemed to be growing softer +and more genial every minute. + +"Is that you, Volodia?" the old man asked. + +Volodia only nodded. It was easy to see that he was dejected. His father +became interested and dismissed the clerk. + +"Anything the matter, Volodia?" he asked. + +"Nothing is the matter." An answer of this sort usually indicated that +the young man was burning to unbosom himself of something or other and +that he needed some coaxing to do so. Intellectually the mutual +relations of father and son were of a rather peculiar nature. Each +looked up to the other and courted his approbation without the other +being aware of it. Their discussions often had the character of an +epigram-match. + +When Volodia had told his father of his experience at the house of the +lame princess, the old man said: + +"I see you are quite excited over it. As for me, that penniless +spendthrift reminds me of the pig that mistook the nobleman's backyard +for the interior of his mansion. The backyard was all the pig had seen +of the place, and money-lenders are the only kind of Jews that lame +drone has ever had an occasion to know. That she should mistake a +handful of usurers for the whole Jewish people is the most natural thing +in the world." + +"Oh, but they are all like that, father. Unfortunately the Jewish people +are just the opposite of women in this respect. Women have a knack of +flaunting all that is prepossessing and of concealing that which is +unattractive in them. If the Gentiles see none but the worst Jews there +are we have ourselves to blame." + +"But they don't care to see any other Jews. As a rule, the good Jew has +no money to lend. They have no use for him. More than half of our +people are hard-working mechanics on the verge of starvation. Do you +expect an ornament like your Princess Chertogoff and her precious sons +to make _their_ acquaintance? Of the rest the great majority are +starving tradesmen, teachers, Talmudists, dreamers. Would you have a +Gentile reprobate go to these for a loan?" + +Vladimir sat silent awhile, gazing through the open window at the +thickening dusk. Then he said, listlessly at first, but gathering ardour +from the relish he took in his own point: + +"You are as unjust to the good Gentiles as they are to the good Jews. +What is needed is more understanding between the two. If the dreamers +and scholars you refer to could speak Russian and looked less +antediluvian than they do the prejudice that every Jew is a money-lender +would gradually disappear. As it is, Jew and Gentile are like two apples +that come in mutual contact at a point where they are both rotten." + +"The Jewish apple was originally sound, Volodia. It's through +association with their Gentile neighbours that they have been +demoralised--at the point of contact; our faults are theirs; our virtues +are our own." + +"Oh, this is a very one-sided view to take of it, father," Volodia +rejoined, resentfully. What he coveted was consolation, not an attack on +everything that he held dear, that was the soul of his best years and +ambitions. His father's light-hearted derision of the entire Russian +people irritated him. "If some Jews become demoralised through contact +with Gentile knaves, other Jews are uplifted, ennobled, sanctified by +coming under the influence of the great Russian thinkers, poets, friends +of the people," he went on, emphasising his words with something like a +feeling of spite. "Yours is an extremely one-sided view to take, +father." + +The elder Vigdoroff was cowed. He felt himself convicted of +narrow-mindedness, of retrogression, of fogyism, and by way of +disproving the charge he put up a defence that was disguised in the form +of an attack. Vladimir replied bitterly, venting his misery on his +father. The two found themselves on the verge of one of those feuds +which sometimes divided them for days without either having the courage +to take the first step toward a reconciliation, but their discussion was +broken by the appearance of a servant carrying a lamp. She was followed +by Vladimir's mother, a mountain of shapeless, trembling flesh with a +torpid, wide-eyed look. In the yellow light the family likeness between +father and son came pleasingly into view. Only the face of the one had a +touch of oriental quaintness in it, while the other's was at once +mellowed and intensified by the tinge of modern culture. Clara's mother +was a sister of the elder Vigdoroff, but she resembled him only +slightly. The girl's features suggested her uncle far more than they did +her mother. + +"Never mind the lamp," the Arbitrator said somewhat irately. + +"Never mind the lamp!" his wife said, fixing her torpid eyes on him. +"Are you crazy? Don't mind him"--to the servant girl. The servant girl +set the lamp down on the table and withdrew, her big fleshy mistress +taking a seat by her son's side. + +"Go about your business," her husband said, good-naturedly. "You are +disturbing our discussion. I was just getting started when you came in +and spoiled the job. Go. There may be some beggar-woman waiting for you +in the kitchen." + +She made a mocking gesture without stirring, and her husband resumed his +argument. + +She was one of a very small number of Jewish women who attended divine +service on week-days. She was the game of every woman pedlar and beggar +in town, with whom she usually communed when her husband was out. When +not thus occupied, buying useless bargains or listening to some poor +woman's tale of woe, she would spend much of her time in her big easy +chair, dozing over a portly psalter. Her husband was perpetually +quizzing her on her piety and her surreptitious bargains. On Fridays, +when beggars came in troops for their pennies, the Arbitrator would +sometimes divert himself by encouraging some of them to fall into line +more than once. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +CLARA BECOMES "ILLEGAL." + + +Late the next afternoon Mme. Shubeyko called at the warden's house with +a blue silk handkerchief round her face, apparently suffering from a +swollen cheek or toothache. + +An hour or more later, while she and Rodkevich were absorbed in a game +of cards in the parlour and a solitary star shone out of the +semi-obscurity of a colorless sky, Makar, clean-shaven and clad as a +woman, with a blue handkerchief round his face, advanced toward the +gate. Clara stood in the doorway of the warden's office, watching the +scene. "Double Chin," the gateman, was still on duty, and as the +disguised prisoner approached him the impersonation struck her as +absurdly defective. Another second and all would be lost with a crash. +Her heart stood still. She shut her eyes with a sick feeling, but the +next instant she sprang forward, bonnetless, addressing Makar by Mme. +Shubeyko's name. + +"You must not forget to let us know, dear," she said aloud, placing +herself between him and the gateman and shutting the disguised man from +view. "A swollen gum is a dangerous thing to neglect, you know. Yes, +figs and milk. I'll see you down the road, dear." + +The heavy key groaned in the lock, the ponderous gate swung open and +Makar and Clara walked out into the twilight of the street--he with a +rush of joy, she in a turmoil of triumph and despair. It seemed as if he +had never vividly hoped to see liberty, and now, suddenly, he had found +himself breathing the very breath of it; while she who, a minute ago, +could have walked freely through the streets, was now the quarry of that +terrible force called government. + +As soon as they reached the ditch, a short distance from the prison +building, Makar pulled off his feminine attire, threw it under the +little foot-bridge, and put on a government official's cap. Masha, the +gendarme officer's sister, was to await him round the corner; her house +was within easy reach from here, and Makar was to be taken there to +change his disguise and then to be driven to the Palace; but it had all +come about much sooner than they had expected, and she had not yet +arrived. + +"Never mind. Hire a cab to Cucumber Market," Clara said. "There you can +cross some streets in the opposite direction and then take another cab +direct for Theatre Square. A very short walk will bring you to the +Palace. Don't forget the names: First Cucumber Market and then Theatre +Square," she repeated, coolly. + +He nodded with a reassuring smile, shook her hand warmly, and they +parted. + + * * * * * + +Double Chin was soon to be relieved. Had he left his post before the +guards missed Makar, the connection existing between Mme. Shubeyko's +toothache and Makar's escape would never have been discovered, and Clara +would have come out uncompromised. But Clara was too slow in returning, +and the fat gateman was an impressionable, suspicious man, so he +presently made inquiry. He found that Mme. Shubeyko was still in the +warden's parlour, nursing her cheek with one hand and holding her cards +with the other. + +In the commotion that followed the discovery Rodkevich wept hysterically +and beat the gateman, while Mme. Shubeyko went about invoking +imprecations upon the sly prisoner for stealing her new spring cloak, +bonnet and parasol. + +Meanwhile Clara stood at a point of vantage, watching developments. Had +Double Chin left the building at the usual hour, without the prison +betraying any signs of disquiet, she would have returned to her room in +the warden's house at once, and thus saved her legal existence. +Otherwise she would have been forced to escape and join the army of the +"ne-legalny" (illegal), of political outlaws like the majority of +Pavel's intimate friends in St. Petersburg. About twenty minutes had +elapsed from the time she had parted from Makar, when she saw human +figures burst from the prison-gate, accompanied by the violent trill of +a police whistle. Her heart sank at the sound. From this minute on +Miroslav would be forbidden ground to her. A _ne-legalny_ is something +neither dead nor alive, the everlasting prey of gendarmes, policemen, +spies--of the Czar himself, it seemed; a "cut-off slice;" an outcast +without the right of being either an outcast or a member of the +community, a creature without name, home or identity. She was +appallingly forbidding to herself. But then in the underground world +_ne-legalny_ is a title of indescribable distinction, and at this moment +Clara seemed to feel in her own person the sanctity which she had been +wont to associate with the word. + +By ridding herself of her starched collar and ribbon and hastily +rearranging her hair into a coarse, dishevelled knot she was +sufficiently transformed to look like a young woman of the masses to +strangers. She could not go to the Palace without a hat, however, and +buying one at this hour would have attracted undesirable attention. So +she first went to the house of Beile, her uneducated sister. Her +father's address or full name being unknown at the prison, it would be +some time before the police came to look for her at her sister's. + +Beile was a little woman of thirty with glowing dark eyes and a great +capacity for tears and nagging. She resembled her parents neither in +looks nor in character, and her mother often wondered "whence she came +into the family." Her husband, a man learned in the Talmud, was absorbed +day and night in an effort to build up a small business in hides. As a +consequence, the space under Beile's bed was usually occupied with raw +skins and the two-room apartment which they shared with a tailor was +never free from odours of putrefaction. + +Clara entered the room with a smile. The first thing she did was to kiss +and slap Ruchele, her sister's little girl, and to tickle her baby +brother under the chin. + +"Why, where is your hat?" Beile screamed in amazement. + +Her own hat was a matronly bonnet which she never wore except on +Saturdays, when she would put it on over her wig, tying its two long, +broad ribbons under her chin. + +"It blew off into the river as I was crossing the bridge," Clara +replied. "That's what brings me here. I want you to get me a hat, Beile, +but you must do it quickly." + +"Are you crazy? Whatever is the matter with you, Clara? Whoever heard of +a girl taking so little care of her hat that it should drop into the +water? You don't think you are a daughter of Rothschild, do you? Did you +ever!" + +"That's all right, Beile. We'll talk it all over some other time. Every +minute is of great value to me." + +Beile thought her sister was in a hurry to attend a lesson, so she +started. As she reached the door, with the baby in her arms, she +couldn't help facing about again. + +"Didn't you go down the bank to look for it?" she asked. + +"But I am telling you I have not a moment's time now." + +The more irritation she betrayed, the more the other was tempted to nag +her. + +"But somebody must have picked it up. It cost you five rubles and you've +not worn it ten times." + +"Beile! Beile!" Clara groaned. + +"Tell me where it is. I'll go and look for it myself. Maybe it is not +yet too late. Lord of the World, five rubles!" + +Clara was left with Ruchele, but she changed her mind. + +"I think I'll wait at Motl's house," she said, overtaking her sister, +with the child by her side. "It's nearer to my lesson." + +Motl, the trunk-finisher employed by their mother, lived a considerable +distance from here. Beile gave her a look full of amazement and dawning +intelligence. + +"At Motl's!" she whispered, sizing up Clara's dishevelled appearance. +"Where is your collar? A rend into my heart! What have you been doing to +yourself? Anyhow, go to Motl's. Or, no, go to Feige's. That's much +better. I'll bring you a hat in ten minutes." Feige was a poor old +relative of Beile's by marriage. + + * * * * * + +When Clara, in a large shepherdess hat and genteel looking, bade her +sister a hurried good-bye and made for the open gate, Ruchele ran after +her, yelling so that her mother had to catch her in her arms and carry +her gagged indoors. That was the only adventure Clara encountered on her +way to the Palace. + +Makar was not there. + +She told Pavel of the rescue in general outline, explaining that an +unexpected opportunity had presented itself and that there had been no +time for sending word to him. He flew into a rage. So far from being the +central figure in the affair for which he had been priming himself these +many weeks he had been left out of it altogether, left out like a ninny +caught napping. But this was no time for wounded pride. Clara had +unexpectedly become a _ne-legalny_ and--what was of more immediate +concern--what had become of Makar? + +"I hope he was not taken in the street," he whispered. + +"Masha might know. Could you send Onufri?" + +Pavel disliked to use the old hussar for errands of this nature, but in +the present juncture there seemed to be no way out of it. + +Onufri brought back a note in which the words were all but leaping with +excitement. + +"No! No! No!" Masha wrote. "He has not been caught. My brother has not +yet been home. Everybody is nearly crazy! But I can almost see my +brother chuckling--in his heart of course! Hurrah! Hurrah! Long live the +revolution!" + +"Thank God!" said Clara, shutting her eyes, in a daze of relief. + +"He's a trump, after all. If they haven't caught him so far I don't see +why he should be caught now. He may come in at any moment. But where can +he be?" + +The next morning, at about ten o'clock, when the countess heard the +doorbell she declared, with intense agitation, that something told her +it was the governor, and so it was. Clara went into her room. + +"Don't leave me for a moment, Pasha," Anna Nicolayevna entreated her +son. "I am afraid to face him alone. I should be sure to put my foot in +it, if I did." + +"Just leave uncle to me," said Pavel. + +The old man looked wan and haggard, and was blinking harder than ever. +He began by joking Pasha on the rarity of his visits at the +gubernatorial mansion, but the young man cut him short. + +"By the way, uncle, is it true that that fellow, the Nihilist, has +escaped?" he asked. + +"How did it reach you so soon?" the governor asked. "The town must be +full of it." + +"I heard it from a cab-driver last night. It's awful. But how did he get +out? Say what you will, they are a clever set, those Nihilists." + +"Clever nothing! Our gendarmes are the most stupid lot on God's earth. +That's where the trouble comes in. There was a governess at the warden's +house. It was she who seems to have managed the whole affair. Of course, +the warden is a scoundrel, but what does he know of these things? It's +for the gendarme office to scent a bird of that variety, but then the +gendarme office is made up of rogues and blockheads. To clip one's +wings, that's all they are good for. Wherever one turns, he bumps his +head against the 'independent power' of the gendarmerie. It's a +government within a government, that's what it is. Else one would be +able to show St. Petersburg that Miroslav was not the kind of place for +Nihilists and all sorts of ragamuffins to play the mischief with. Those +swaggering gendarmes go around poking their noses everywhere, smelling +nothing but their own grand epaulets, and yet they are beyond the +control of civil authorities. The consequence is that when something +happens somebody else is held responsible, because the prisons, +forsooth, are under the Department of the Interior! To set an example of +idleness and stupidity is all they seem to be needed for, the gendarmes; +that's all, that's all." + +Pavel agreed with him. + + * * * * * + +Another week passed. The police and the gendarmes were still searching +for Makar and the governess, as much in the dark as ever. + +Yossl Parmet, Makar's father, was brought to Miroslav a prisoner, but he +was soon discharged. He was proud of his son. He now fully realised that +his Feivish belonged to a secret society made up of educated people who +preached economic equality and universal brotherhood as well as +political liberty, and that they were ready to go to prison for their +ideas. This made a strong appeal to his imagination and sympathies, and +the fact that his Feivish had outwitted the authorities and escaped from +prison inclined him to shouts of triumphant laughter. He searched the +Talmud for similar sentiments, and he found no stint of passages which +lent themselves to favourable interpretation. A new vista of thought and +feeling had opened itself to Yossl. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +ON SACRED GROUND. + + +In 1648, when Chmyelnicki's Cossacks slaughtered 40,000 Jews, Miroslav +was among the cities that fell into their blood-dripping hands. It was a +small town then; the Jewish population did not exceed eight hundred, but +these unanimously decided to be slain rather than abandon their faith. +Not a man, woman or child was spared. The scene of the slaughter, a +small square in the vicinity of Cucumber Market, is sacred ground to the +Jews of Miroslav. The Bloody Spot they call it reverently. A synagogue +stands there and ten recluses find shelter under its roof, so that the +Word of God may be heard with unbroken continuity within its walls. If +this house of prayer and divine study were to fall silent for a single +minute, say the children of the town, the blood of the slain Jews would +burst into a roar of sobbing that could be heard for seven miles. + +But the ten recluses were not the only Talmudists in the place. The Old +Synagogue, as it was generally called, was the favourite haunt of +scholars. It was here where Rabbi Rachmiel, Clara's father, spent every +day and evening in the week except Saturdays and holidays. + +It was about eight o'clock of a warm evening, several days after the +disappearance of the political prisoner. The Old Synagogue was filled +with people. The evening service was over. Candles flickered on gaunt, +tallow-stained reading-desks and blazing oil-lamps dangled from the +ceiling. The recluses were freely gossiping or snoozing; there were so +many others to do the holy work--a medley of voices and melodies--from +the enthusiastic soprano of the schoolboy to the dignified drone of the +elderly merchant; from the conscious, over-elaborate intonation of the +newly-married young man to the absorbed murmur of the tattered old +scholar. As to the Talmudists themselves, they found stimulating harmony +in this chaos. To them it was as if the synagogue itself were singing in +a hundred voices, an inspired choir that quickened one's intellectual +passions and poured fire into one's gesticulations. + +One of the younger men in the crowd was Makar. Seated in a snug corner, +with his reading-desk tilted against his breast, he was sincerely +absorbed in a passage on the slaying of cattle. The treatise is one of +the most intricate in the Talmud, and he had taken it up as he might a +game of chess. The lower part of his face was buried in the sloping +surface of a huge long book, the handle of a tin candlestick hooked to +the top of the folio. The flame of a guttering candle threw a stream of +light upon his dusky high forehead and heavy black eyebrows. Slightly +rocking the desk, he intoned the Chaldaic text and the Yiddish +interpretations, listening to his own sing-song as one listens, at some +distance, to a familiar voice. + +Rabbi Rachmiel, Clara's father, was studying quietly in a corner, in +peaceful ignorance of the mad hunt that was going on for his daughter at +this moment. That this red-bearded little man was the father of the +Nihilist girl who had brought about his escape Makar had not the least +idea. + +After bidding Clara good-bye on the evening of his rescue, he had taken +the first cab he came across, getting off at Cucumber Market, as +directed. After zig-zagging about for five minutes, he was going to hail +another cab, but checked himself because the man proved to be the same +who had brought him to Cucumber Market. A boy stopped to look at him, +whereupon he made up his mind that the official cap which he wore (and +which had been expected to give him the appearance of a teacher in a +government school for Jews) scarcely went well with his face, and that +it must be this cap of his which had attracted the boy's attention. He +therefore went to a capmaker's shop and bought an ordinary cap, such as +is worn by the average old-fashioned Jew, explaining to the artisan that +it was for his father, who had his size. This part of the town he knew +well, for it was in the centre of the Jewish quarter, not many minutes' +walk from his former lodgings. The Old Synagogue was in the same +neighbourhood, and it flashed upon him to seek temporary refuge in the +celebrated house of worship and learning. Living in such a place was +like hiding in the depths of the Fourth Century--the age of the Talmud, +which was still the soul of the Ghetto, still the fountain-head of the +spiritual and intellectual life of the orthodox Jew. He would be in his +native element there, at any rate, and would certainly feel more +comfortable than amid the imposing interiors of a noblewoman's mansion. +On his way to the synagogue he twisted the hair at his temples till he +looked as he used to, before he left Zorki. As to his shave, he prepared +an explanation: he was subject to a species of skin disease that made +shaving unavoidable. + +The assistant beadle at the Old Synagogue was a man with a luxurious +white beard. He was not learned in the Talmud himself, but he had served +in the great "house of study" so long that he was familiar with the +titles of the various volumes and sections in the same way as an old +servant at a medical college is familiar with anatomical nomenclature. +He danced attendance on every diligent scholar, and was the terror of +every boy who romped or talked "words of daily life" over his holy book. +He was in charge of the synagogue library and the candle supply. His +salary was no larger than that of a street labourer, yet he had the +appearance of a stern, prosperous merchant. + +When Makar first applied for a book and a candle the assistant beadle +cast a knowing look at his smooth-shaven face, and then, handing him the +volume, said: + +"You are in the army, aren't you?" + +"How do you know, by my shaved face?" Makar asked, sadly. + +The assistant beadle smiled assent. The skin-disease story proved +unnecessary. + +"There is many a Talmudist among soldiers nowadays," the old man said. +"To think of a Child of Law having to live in military bondage, to wear +a uniform, to shave and to handle a gun!" He regarded Makar as a martyr. +When he saw him reading his book in a pleasing, absorbed sing-song, he +paused and watched him with a look of paternal admiration. + +"Do you belong here?" he asked later. + +"No." He named the first town that came to his tongue. + +"Have you relatives here?" + +"No. But I have obtained a furlough and am going home. I am waiting for +a letter and some money. I have left my uniform with a friend." + +The assistant beadle asked Makar for news--whether there were any +rumours of some new war, or of some fresh legislation affecting the +condition of Jews. The query was made on the supposition that Makar, as +a member of the Czar's army and one who saw so many officers, could not +be unfamiliar with what was going on "up above"; and Makar appeased the +old man's curiosity with some suitable bits of information. The +assistant beadle was particularly interested in the story of a certain +colonel, a bitter anti-Semite, who used to beat the Jews in his regiment +because a Jewish money-lender had him under his thumb. Now this "Jews' +enemy" lay in bed, stricken with paralysis--a clear case of divine +reckoning. Did Makar know him? Makar said he did. + +The discussion was interrupted by the appearance of a bewigged woman +with a pound of candles, in commemoration of the anniversary of a death. +She wanted to make sure that they were going to be used for diligent +study and not to be thrown away on loafers, and the assistant beadle +told her that it would be all right and that she had better go home and +put the children to bed. Another woman, whose boy was studying in a +corner, was watching his gesticulations with beaming reverence. She had +an apple for him and a copper coin for the assistant beadle, and when +she saw Makar looking at her son, she said, nodding her head blissfully: + +"Praised be the Master of the World. It is not in vain that I am +toiling. The boy will be an adornment to my old age." + +Later in the evening a woman burst into the synagogue, lamenting and +wringing her hands. She besought the recluses to pray for her +newly-married daughter, who was on her death-bed. Makar was deeply +touched. He felt like a foreigner amid these scenes that had once been +his own world, and the consciousness of it filled him with melancholy. + +He slept at the synagogue. After the service next morning he sent out a +boy for some bread, butter and pot cheese, and at two o'clock a devout +widow brought him, at the assistant beadle's recommendation, a pot of +soup and boiled meat. He ate his dinner with Talmudistic bashfulness, +the woman looking on piously, and mutely praying to heaven that her +dinner might agree with the holy man and give him strength for the study +of God's laws. + +Toward evening he ventured out on a stroll through the spacious +courtyard which lay between the Old Synagogue and several other houses +of worship. In this yard was a great octagonal basin, celebrated for its +excellent tea water, with moss-grown spouts and chained wooden dippers. +He watched the water-bearers with their pails and the girls with their +jugs--a scene that seemed to have sprung to life from certain passages +in the Talmud--until he came within a hair's breadth of being recognised +by his former landlady. + +Rabbi Rachmiel was absent from the synagogue that day. When Makar +returned to the house of study he noticed signs of excitement. The +recluses and other students were absorbed in whispered, panic-stricken +conversation. They dared not discuss the news in groups, some even +pretending to be engrossed in their books, as much as to say: "In case +it comes to the knowledge of the police that you people are talking +about it, I want you to remember that I took no part in your gossip." +The meaning of Clara's disappearance was not quite clear to them. They +knew in a very dim way that there were people, for the most part +educated people, who wanted to do away with czars in general, and now it +appeared that Rabbi Rachmiel's daughter was one of those mysterious +persons. Those of the Talmudists who knew Clara were trying to imagine +her as something weird, preternatural, and when her familiar face came +back to them they uttered subdued exclamations of amazement. + +When the news reached Makar he wondered whether it would not be +advisable for him to decamp at once. But he was so snugly established in +his present berth that he was loath to abandon it. + +Some of the worshippers who dropped in to read a page or two of an +evening would gather in groups, bandying gossip or talking foreign +politics, of which, indeed, they had the most grotesque conceptions. +Here Makar picked up many a side-splitting story illustrative of the +corruption, intemperance and childlike ineptitude of government +officials. His attention seized with special eagerness upon a +description of the demoralised state of things in the printing shop +connected with the governor's office. There is not an article of +merchandise over which the Russian authorities maintain a more rigorous +control than they do over type, every pound, almost every letter of it, +used in the empire being registered and supposedly kept track of; yet +the foreman of that shop often offered some of the Czar's own supply for +sale, and in default of buyers (the licensed private printers of the +town being too timid to handle this most dangerous species of stolen +goods) he had once molten a large quantity of new type and sold it for +scrap lead. Makar could not help picturing the revolutionists in regular +communication with this man. Nor did his fancy stop there. Gradually all +the typesetters under that foreman would be supplanted by +revolutionists, and the Czar's printing office would print the _Will of +the People_! + +Two days elapsed before Rabbi Rachmiel returned. When he did he scarcely +spoke to anybody. Naturally a man of few words, he now spent every +minute reading his book with ferocious absorption. + +The next day was Friday. In the evening the turmoil of Talmudic accents +gave way to an ancient chant, at once light-hearted and solemn--the song +of welcome to Sabbath the Bride. The brass chandeliers, brightly +burnished, were filled with blazing candles. About half of the seats +were occupied by worshippers, freshly bathed and most of them in their +Sabbath clothes. Rabbi Rachmiel wore a beaming face, "in honour of the +Sabbath," that was plainly the result of effort. As Maker watched him +chant his Sabbath-eve psalms, the heart of the escaped Nihilist was +contracted with sympathy and something like a sense of guilt. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile Count Loris-Melikoff had abolished the Third Section, +transferring the secret service to the Interior Department, and while +the change had not displaced the Dandy from office, yet it materially +impaired his usefulness to his party. + +When Makar returned to St. Petersburg Pavel met him with kisses and hugs +and punches. The Janitor, whom he saw the next day, shook his hand +heartily. + +"It's all right," he said, looking Makar over with an amused air. + +"What are you smiling at?" Parmet demanded, colouring. + +"At you. I can't get myself to believe it was really you who made such a +neat job of it." + +"I!" Makar protested, exultingly. "Any idiot would know how to be +arrested. It's Clara that carried the scheme through." + +"Still, there is better stuff in you than I gave you credit for." + +Makar was quivering to know something of the use that had been made of +his arrest, but conspirators ask no questions. Indeed, to try to know as +little as possible, to avoid information upon anything except that in +which one was personally participating was (or was supposed to be) an +iron law of the movement; and now Makar was more jealous of his +reputation as a conspirator than ever. + +"Well, it's all right," the Janitor said, reading his thoughts. +"Something has been done and it's all right; only under the new system +it's rather slow work." + +Makar did not understand. The abolition of the Third Section had taken +place while he was in prison. When he heard of the change he said in +dismay: "Will that affect my scheme?" + +"Your scheme? I don't think it will," the Janitor answered mysteriously. +"Of course, we'll first have to see how the new system works. We must do +some sounding and watching and studying before we know how to go about +things. Can't you wait a month or two?" + +Makar was silent, then his face broke into a roguish smile. + +"I will if you get me into an underground printing office for the +interval," he returned. + +The Janitor took fire. "What has that got to do with your cursed +scheme?" he said with a slight stutter. "As if I had printing jobs to +give away!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +A POSTPONED WEDDING. + + +In June of that year, shortly before Makar escaped from prison, the +unhappy Empress of Russia died after a long illness that was generally +ascribed to her many years of jealousy and anguish. The Czar signified +his intention to enter into morganatic wedlock with Princess Dolgoruki +at once. His sons and brothers remonstrated with him, pleading for a +postponement of the marriage until the end of a year's mourning; but he +was passionately devoted to the princess, with whom he had been on terms +of intimacy for the past few years; he was determined to have these +relations legitimatised, and, in view of the unrelenting campaign of the +Terrorists, he felt that he could not do so too soon. Several members of +the imperial family then went on a foreign tour, and the wedding was +quietly solemnised on July 31 in Livadia, Crimea, where the Czar and his +bride remained for a long honeymoon. + +Pavel's and Clara's wedding was to take place in the early part of +October. The relations of the sexes among the Nihilists were based upon +the highest ideals of purity, and the marriage bond was sacred in the +best sense of the word, but they were not given to celebrating their +weddings. When a couple became man and wife the fact was recognised as +tacitly as it was made known, the adoption by the bride of her husband's +name being out of the question in a world in which passports and names +were apt to be changed every day. Still, there were exceptions, and +Pavel insisted upon being one of these. In his overflowing bliss he +often cast the spartanism of the movement to the winds, and now he was +bent upon indulging himself in the "romanticism" of having his wedding +proclaimed at a gathering of his most intimate friends. This was to be +done at the close of an important revolutionary meeting, at the same +lodgings where we once saw Pavel, Zachar and My Lord at a gathering of +military officers. A high government official who occupied the first +floor of the same building was giving an elaborate reception which kept +the house porters busy and the street in front crowded with carriages +and idlers; so the central organisation of the Party of the Will of the +People took advantage of the occasion and held one of its general +meetings under cover of the excitement. The assemblage, which was made +up of about sixty or seventy persons of both sexes, comprised nearly +every member of the Executive Committee in town, and some candidates for +admission to the Executive who were allowed to participate in its +deliberations without a vote. Most of the revolutionists present had +taken part in attempts on the life of the Czar, as also in some of the +recent assassinations. One man, a southerner, was the hero of the most +sensational rescue during the past few years, having snatched from the +Kieff prison, in which he had contrived to obtain the position of head +keeper, three leaders of an extensive revolutionary plot. This man, the +Janitor and Purring Cat now constituted the Governing Board (a +sub-committee clothed with dictatorial powers) of the Terrorists' +Executive. + +The police were hunting for the people here gathered throughout the +empire. Had the present meeting been discovered by spies the whole +movement would have been seriously crippled for a considerable time. +Indeed, the complex conspiracies of the Will of the People were an +element of fatal weakness as well as a manifestation of fascinating +strength. The Terror absorbed the best resources of the party, +necessitating highly centralised organisation, with the threads of a +scattered national propaganda in the hands of a few "illegals" who were +liable to be seized at any moment. + +The street was full of police, but these had all they could do to salute +the distinguished guests of the first floor and to take care of the +carriages and the crowd of curiosity seekers. + +Partly through Pavel's influence and partly because she was an "illegal" +and had produced a very favourable impression, Clara had made the +acquaintance of many of the revolutionary leaders and been admitted as a +probationary member of the Executive Committee. The present gathering +was the first general meeting of the central body she had attended. + +"So this is the Executive Committee!" she was saying to herself. This, +then, was the mysterious force that people were talking about in timid +whispers; that the Czar dreaded; that was going to make everybody free +and good and happy. This was it, and she was attending its meeting. She +could scarcely believe her senses that she actually was there. She knew +many of the members, but she had never seen several of them together. +The present meeting almost benumbed her with a feeling of reverence, +awe, and gratitude. Even those she had met often since her arrival in +St. Petersburg seemed different beings now, as though spiritualised into +that mysterious force that seemed mightier than the Czar and holier than +divinity. An overpowering state of exaltation, of something akin to the +ecstasy of a woman upon taking the veil, came over her. Pavel was dearer +than ever to her, but in her present mood their love impressed her as a +jarring note. Self-sacrifice, not personal happiness, was what appealed +to her, and by degrees she keyed herself up to a frame of mind in which +her prospective married life seemed a gross profanation of the sanctuary +to which she had been admitted. + +"Let us postpone it, Pasha dear," she whispered to him, with a thrilling +sense of sacrificing her happiness to the cause. + +"Why?" he demanded in perplexity. + +They went into the adjoining room. "What is the trouble? What's the +trouble?" he demanded, light-heartedly. + +"No trouble at all, dearest," she answered affectionately. "You are +dearer than ever to me, but pray let us postpone it." + +"But there must be some reason for it," he said with irritation. + +"Don't be vexed, Pashenka. There is really no special reason. I simply +don't feel like being married--yet. I want to give my life to the +movement, Pasha. I am enjoying too much happiness as it is." She uttered +it in grave, measured, matter-of-fact accents, but her hazel eyes +reflected the uplifted state of her soul. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed with a mixed sense of relief and adoration. "If +that's what you mean, all I can say is that I am not worthy of you, +Clara; but of course, the question of giving our lives to the cause has +nothing to do with the question of our belonging to each other. Or, +rather, it's one and the same thing." + +She made no reply. The very discussion of the subject jarred on her. + +"You are in a peculiar mood now, and you are an angel, anyhow, but +to-morrow you'll see the matter in a different light." + +"At any rate, let us postpone it, Pashenka." And she led the way back to +the meeting room. + +Many of the company knew of the expected announcement, and when they +heard that it was not to take place they felt sorely disappointed. When +the business of the meeting had been disposed of, a Terrorist named +Sablin waggishly drank the health of Mlle. Yavner and the social +revolution, to the accompaniment of the rapturous band of the first +floor, and then he began to improvise burlesque verses on her as a +newcomer, with allusions to her power over Pavel. This revolutionist was +one of the "twin poets" of the party, his muse, which had a weakness for +satire, being the gayer of the two. The "grave bard," whose name was +Morosoff, was in Switzerland now. The two were great chums. As always, +Sablin was the great convivial spirit of the company. When he was not +versifying, he was making jokes, telling anecdotes or trying to speak +Little-Russian to Purring Cat, who, being from Little Russia, answered +his questions with smiling passivity. Some of his rhymes related to +Purring Cat's interminable side-whiskers, Zachar's habit of throwing out +his chest as he walked, the reticence of the tall man with the Tartarian +face, and, above all, the Janitor's explosions of wrath when one "was +not continually leering around for spies." + +The Janitor cursed him good-humouredly, without stuttering, and resumed +his discussion with a man who looked like the conventional image of +Christ, and with Urie, the tall blond man with typical Great-Russian +features who had introduced Pavel to the Nihilist world and whom he +still called "Godfather." The gay poet then took to versifying on the +"three blond beards" of this trio. + +Zachar made the most noise, dancing cossack hops till the floor shook +under his feet, singing at the top of his lungs, filling the large room +with deafening guffaws. Baska, the light complexioned "housewife" of the +dynamite shop, who looked like a peasant woman, was the greatest giggler +of all the women present. Grisha, her passport husband at that shop, and +her real husband--a thin man with Teutonic features, known among the +revolutionists as "the German"--were also there. + +Sophia, the daughter of the former governor of St. Petersburg, sat by +Clara's side, smiling her hearty good wishes upon her. She looked like a +happy little girl, Sophia, her prominent cheeks aglow, and her clear +blue self-possessed eyes full of affection and sweet-spirited +penetration. She was engaged to Zachar, and Pavel's courtship had +enlisted her tender interest. There were several other women at the +gathering, two or three of them decidedly good-looking. + +There was an unpublished poem, "Virgin Soil," by the "gay bard," which +Clara had heard him recite and which portrayed, among other things, a +Nihilist woman becoming a mother in her isolated cell. Her child is +wrested from her arms to perish, and she goes insane. The episode, which +is part of a bitter satire on a certain official, is based on fact. As +Clara now thought of it and beheld the demented woman nursing a rag, a +shudder passed through her frame. + +"Cheer up, Clara! Cheer up!" Zachar thundered. "We don't want any long +faces to-night." + +Clara smiled, a sorry smile, and Zachar went on hopping and laughing. +But when Sophia stroked her hand, smilingly, Clara buried her face in +her bosom and gave way to a quick sob. + +"What does it mean?" Pavel asked. + +"Nothing," Clara answered, gleaming through her tears. + +There were four or five Jews in the assemblage, but Makar was not among +them. His cherished dream had been realised at last. He was working in a +secret printing office. Establishments of this sort were guarded with +special solicitude, so in view of his absent-mindedness, Makar never +left the place for fear of bringing back some spy. The other +revolutionists who worked in the same printing shop and who were +registered at the police station as residents of the house had each his +or her day off. Makar alone was not registered. The porters of the house +had never seen him, and the composing room was his prison. + +The only other Jewess in the room was a dark insignificant looking woman +named Hessia Helfman. She was touchingly bashful, so that at one time +Clara had offered to befriend her. She had soon discovered, however, +that the dark little Jewess was in charge of a most important conspiracy +station. On closer acquaintance Hessia had proved to be quite talkative +and of an extremely affectionate nature. Clara's attachment to her had +become greater still when she had learned that Purring Cat was her +husband. The great thing was that he was a Gentile and a nobleman, +although not a prince. Clara had told herself that the equality of Jew +and Gentile and their intermarriage among socialists was a matter of +course and that the circumstance attracted no special attention on her +part, but she knew that it did. + +As she now looked at Hessia and her husband, she said to herself, with a +great sense of relief: "She is as good as I, anyhow. If she could marry +the man she loves I can." + +But her joy in this absolution from her self-imposed injunction soon +faded away. To sacrifice her happiness seemed to her the highest +happiness this evening. She would surpass Hessia. If there was a world +in which platonic relations were called for theirs was that world. The +image of a demented woman fondling a rag in her prison cell came back to +her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +A SECOND COURTSHIP. + + +The Czar was still in Livadia with his bride, abandoning himself to his +second youth with a passion that was tinged with the pathos of imminent +tragedy, when Count Loris-Melikoff telegraphed to him a plea for the +lives of two revolutionists who had been sentenced to death, one of +these being Alexandre, the man in whose lodgings the gendarmes had found +a diagram of the Imperial dining hall. The distinguished Armenian was +contemplating reforms which he expected to leave no room for terrorism, +and it was for the sake of these measures as well as of the Emperor +himself, that he was averse to having the bitterness of the +revolutionists quickened by new executions. If they only let the Czar +live until those projects had been carried out, he thought, their +conspiracies would lose all reason of existence; at any rate, the +surreptitious support which they received from men of high social +position would be withdrawn. + +But his despatch was followed by one from the Czarowitz, who, echoing +the views of the anti-Melikoff party at court, urged his father not to +show signs of weakness, and the sentence was allowed to stand. + + * * * * * + +At about nine o'clock in the morning of a cold autumn day, a fortnight +after the meeting of the Executive Committee which Clara attended, +Pavel stood on a chair nailing a clothes rack to the wall. The room was +Clara's. It was on the fifth floor of a house near a corner, with +windows commanding the two intersecting streets, where her window +signals could be seen at a considerable distance. She rented it +furnished, with samovar service, but the curtains and some bits of +bric-a-brac had been bought by Pavel who took more interest in these +things and was handier about the house than she. He himself lived in the +house of a distant relative, an elderly widow, who took great pride in +him and had no doubt that he led the life of the average young man of +his class, that is to say, he spent his nights and his mamma's rubles on +an endless crop of wild oats. To Clara's landlady he was known as a +brother of hers. On the present occasion he had found his fiancee out, +but a mark on the door had told him that she would soon be back. +Presently she came in. She wore a tall fur cap and her cheeks gleamed, +exhaling the freshness of girlish health and of the cold weather of the +street, but she looked grave. Pavel threw away his hammer and pounced +down upon her with open arms. She repulsed him gently. + +"Stop," she whispered, drearily, unbuttoning her cloak and drawing a +newspaper from its inner pocket. "There is terrible news this morning." + +The execution of Alexandre and the other revolutionist had taken place +the day before, and the newspapers were allowed to print a very brief +account of it--how they bade each other good-bye on the scaffold and +how, when Alexandre saw the death-shroud on his friend, his eyes filled +with tears. The two condemned men had been great chums for several +years, Alexandre having once wrested the other from a convoy. Now they +died together. + +As Pavel read the account of the double execution, standing by the +window, a flush of overpowering despair shot into his chest and diffused +itself through his legs. + +"They have choked them after all," he gasped out. + +Clara, who sat at a table watching him, dropped her head on her folded +arms, in a paroxysm of quick, bitter sobbing. + +The few details in the newspaper report gave vividness to the grewsome +scene. The two executed men had been among Pavel's most intimate +friends. The image of Alexandre, his arms pinioned, looking on with +tears while a white shroud was being slipped over his fellow-prisoner, +was tearing at his heart with cruel insistence. + +"Oh, it's terrible, Clarochka!" he moaned, dropping by her side, +nestling to her, and bursting into tears in her bosom. Then, getting up, +he took to walking back and forth, vehemently. "They have choked them, +the blood-drinkers," he muttered. "They have done it after all." He fell +silent, pacing the floor in despair, and then burst out once again: +"They have choked them, the vampires." + +"But war is war," she said, for something to say to him, her own face +distorted with her struggle against a flow of tears. + +"Oh, I don't know. All I do know is that they have been murdered, that +they are no more." A minute or two later he turned upon her with a look +full of ghastly malice. "War did you say? The government can't have +enough of it, can it? Well, it shall have all the war it wants. The +party has only shown it the blossoms; the berries are still to come." + +The world seemed to be divided into those who had known the two executed +men personally and those who had not. For the moment there seemed to be +little in common between him and Clara. She strained him to a seat by +her side on the sofa again, clasping one of his hands in both of hers, +and kissed him on the cheek, wetting his temple with her tears. + +"Do you know, dearest, I really had a lurking hope they would be +spared," he said. "I was ashamed to say so, but I did. But no! they +choked them. They choked them. Idiots that they are. They imagine they +can hang every honest man in the country." + +"Loris-Melikoff is even worse than the Czar. His liberalism is nothing +but hypocrisy. There can no longer be any question about it." + +"He is a rogue of the deepest dye. He is a bungling hypocrite, an +abominable liar and a mangy coward, that's what he is. But to the devil +with him! This is not the point. Oh, nothing is the point. Nothing +except that they have been murdered." + +He went to see some of the revolutionists with whom he had shared the +intimacy of the dead men. + +Left alone, Clara began to pace the floor slowly. Not having known +either Alexandre or the man who had died with him, she was exempt from +that acute agony of grief which was her lover's; but there was the image +of two men in death-shrouds, a stirring image of martyrdom, before her +vision. Pity, the hunger of revenge and a loftier feeling--the thirst of +self-sacrifice to the cause of liberty--swelled her heart. Back and +forth she walked, slowly, solemnly, her hands gently clasped behind her, +her soul in a state of excitement that was coupled with a peculiar state +of physical tranquillity, her mind apparently seeing things with a +perspicacity the like of which it had never enjoyed before. Her future, +her duties, her relation to the rest of the world, her whole life--all +was wonderfully clear to her, and in spite of her anguish over the death +of the two men she felt singularly happy. It seemed to be a matter of +course that her party would now undertake some new plot, one exceeding +in boldness and magnitude all its predecessors. Many lives would have to +be staked. She would offer hers. Matrimony was out of the question at a +time like this. She conjured that image of the insane woman clasping a +rag to her bosom in support of her position. She longed to be near Pavel +again. In her mind she embraced him tenderly, argued with him, opened +her soul to him. It was all so clear. Her mind was so firmly made up. +She fondly hoped she would make Pavel see it all in the same light. + +The explanation took place the next time he called on her, a few days +later. + +"Oh, we shall all have to offer our lives," he replied. "But for God's +sake love me, Clanya. It will drive me crazy if you don't." + +"But I do, I do. I love you with every fibre of my being, Pasha. What +has put it in your head to doubt it?" + +"Oh, I don't know. All I do know is that as long as my life is mine I +cannot exist without you. I am frightfully lonely and that stands in the +way of my work. Dash it, I feel just as I did last summer before I took +courage to tell you that I was insanely in love with you." + +She drew him to her, with a smile at once of happiness and amusement. + +"Poor boy! It's enough to break one's heart. Poor little dear!" she +joked affectionately. + +"I knew you would be making fun of me," he said, yearning upon her. +"Love me, Clanya, do love me, with all your heart. I cannot live apart +from you, I cannot, upon my word I cannot," he concluded piteously, +like a child. + +"Do you imagine it's easy for me to be away from you?" she retorted +earnestly. "I can't be a single hour without you without missing you, +without feverishly waiting to see you again. As if you did not know it! +But what can we do? Is this the only sacrifice we are ready to make?" + + * * * * * + +A fortnight had passed. Unknown to her lover, Clara had spoken to the +Janitor, intimating her readiness to offer her life, and asking for one +of the most dangerous assignments the Governing Board could give her. +She was waiting for an answer, when the startling news spread among the +revolutionists that the Janitor was in the hands of the enemy and that +the capture of that maniac of caution had been the result of a most +insane piece of recklessness. + +His arrest was one of the heaviest losses the party had yet sustained. +At the same time the government found a new source of uneasiness in it. +A large quantity of dynamite and some other things confiscated at his +lodgings pointed to a vigorous renewal of terroristic activity. Another +plot on the life of the Emperor seemed to be hatching in the capital, +yet all efforts of the police and the gendarmes in this connection were +futile. Indeed, the circumstances of the Janitor's arrest only furnished +new proof of the ineptitude and shiftlessness of those whose business it +was to ferret out Nihilism. + +A few days before the Janitor was taken the police received word about +two portraits which had been left for reproduction at a well-known +photograph gallery and in which the photographer had recognised the two +Nihilists who had recently been hanged. Instead of a detective being +detailed, however, to lie in wait for the unknown man, the proprietor of +the gallery was simply ordered to notify the police when he came for his +pictures. The unknown man was the Janitor. When he called for the +photographs, an awkward attempt was made to detain him which aroused his +suspicion. He pleaded haste and made for the door. When a porter barred +his way he scared him off by thrusting his hand into an empty +pistol-pocket. A similar order for photographs of the two executed +Terrorists had been given by him to another well-known photographer next +door to the former place, and it was when he called there, a day or two +after his narrow escape at the adjoining gallery, that he was seized by +detectives. + +When his landlady heard that her "star" lodger, the punctilious +government official and retired army officer, was neither an official +nor a retired officer, but a leading Nihilist, she fainted. The +gendarmes had been hunting for him since he broke away from his captors +on his way to prison one evening more than two years before. They had +heard that it was he who subsequently organised the railroad plot near +Moscow; also that he had been connected with the assassination of the +chief of gendarmes and with the shooting at the Czar in front of the +Winter Palace. Yet he had freely moved about the streets of St. +Petersburg these two years, the busiest agitator and conspirator in the +city, until, in a moment of morbid foolhardiness, he practically +surrendered himself to the police. + +When Clara heard of his arrest, she clapped her hands together, Yiddish +fashion. "If the Janitor has been arrested as a result of carelessness," +she exclaimed, "then everyone of us ought to hold himself in readiness +to be taken at any moment." + +She repeated the remark the next time she saw Pavel, adding: + +"The idea of being a married woman under such conditions!" + +"Oh, that's an _idee fixe_ of yours," he said, testily. + +She gave him a look and dropped her eyes, resentfully. + +The peace-offering came from him. + +"Whew, what a cloud!" he said, pointing at her glum face. "Won't there +be a single rift in it? Not a wee bit of a one for a single ray to come +through?" + +She smiled, heartily. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +A HUNTED MONARCH. + + +The ministers were reporting to the Czar who had recently returned from +Livadia. They were admitted one at a time. As they sat chatting under +breath in the blue waiting room, with the white reflection of the snow +that was falling outside, upon their faces, these elderly men, whose +names were associated in millions of minds with the notion of infinite +dignity and power, looked like a group of anxious petitioners in the +vestibule of some official. + +An exception was made for Count Loris-Melikoff, who was with the Czar +during the audiences of all his colleagues. The Supreme Executive +Commission over which he had presided had been abolished some four +months before. Nominally he was now simply in charge of the Department +of the Interior, but in reality he continued to play the part of +premier, a position he partly owed to Princess Dolgoruki, the Czar's +young wife, who set great store by his liberal policy. She was said to +be a woman of a rather progressive turn of mind, but whether she was or +not, her fate hung on the life of her imperial husband and every measure +that was calculated to pacify the Nihilists found a ready advocate in +her. Indeed, she and the Count were united by a community of personal +interests; for he had as many enemies at court as she, and his position +depended upon the life of Alexander II. as much as hers. + +The Czar was receiving the ministers in a chamber of moderate size, +finished in sombre colours, with engaged columns of malachite, +book-cases of ebony and silver, with carvings representing scenes from +Russian history, and a large writing table to match. Statues of bronze +and ivory stood between the book-cases and a striking life-size +watercolour of Nicholas I. hung on the wall to the right of the Czar's +chair. The falling snow outside was like a great impenetrable veil +without beginning or end, descending from some unknown source and +disappearing into some equally mysterious region. The room, whose high +walls, dismally imposing, were supposed to hold the destinies of a +hundred millions of human beings, was filled with lustreless wintry +light. The Emperor, tall, erect, broad-shouldered, the image of easy +dignity, but pale and with a touch of weariness in his large oval face, +wore the undress uniform of a general of infantry. He was sixty-two and +he was beginning to look it. He listened to the ministers with +constrained attention. He showed exaggerated interest in the affairs of +their respective departments, but they could see that his heart was not +in their talk, and with unuttered maledictions for the upstart +vice-Emperor, they made short work of their errands. They knew that the +Interior Department was the only one that commanded the Czar's interest +in those days. + +At last the Emperor and his chief adviser were left alone. Both were +silent. Loris-Melikoff was as strikingly oriental of feature as +Alexander II. was European. Notwithstanding his splendid military career +and uniform he had the appearance of a sharp-witted scientist rather +than of a warrior. His swarthy complexion, shrewd oriental eyes and +huge energetic oriental nose, flanked by greyer and longer side-whiskers +than the Czar's, made him look like a representative of some foreign +power. + +There was pathos in both. Alexander II. had that passion for life which +comes to an old man upon marrying a pretty young woman. Yet foreigners +who saw him during this period said that he looked like a hunted man. As +to Count Melikoff, his advance had been so rapid, he was surrounded by +so many enemies at court, and the changes by which he was trying to save +the Czar's life and his own power, were beset by so many obstacles, that +he could not help feeling like the peasant of the story who was made +king for one day. + +Naturally talkative and genially expansive, the Czar's manner toward +people who were admitted to his intimacy was one of amiable informality. +The chief pathos of his fate sprang from the discrepancy between the +Czar and the man in him, between a vindictive ruthlessness born of a +blind sense of his autocratic honour and an affectionate, emotional +nature with less grit than pride. Had he been a common mortal he would +have made far more friends than enemies. + +Count Loris-Melikoff had become accustomed to feel at home in his +presence. At this minute, however, as the Czar was watching the snow +flakes, with an air of idle curiosity, the Armenian had an overbearing +sense of the distance between them. He knew that the Czar was anxious to +talk about the revolutionists and that he hated to do so. His heart +contracted with common human pity, yet in the silence that divided them +it came over him that the man in front of him was the Czar, and a +feeling of awe seized him like the one he used to experience at sight of +the Emperor long before he was raised to his present position. This +feeling passed, however, the moment the Czar began to speak. + +"Well?" he said, with sudden directness. "Anything new about that +Michailoff fellow?" Alexandre Michailoff was the real name of the +Janitor. + +"Nothing new so far, your Majesty," Loris-Melikoff answered +obsequiously, yet with something like triumph, as if the powerlessness +of the police were only too natural and substantiated his views on the +general state of things. "He is one of their chief ringleaders." + +"And this has been known all along," the Emperor remarked with sad +irony. "Such a thing would be inconceivable in any other capital in +Europe." + +"Quite so. But I feel that in other countries, the capture of miscreants +like ours would be due less to the efficiency of the police than to the +cordial cooperation of the public. The trouble is that our police is +thrown on its own resources, Sire. It is practically fighting those +wretches single-handed." + +The Czar had a fit of coughing, the result of asthma. When it had +subsided, he said with an air of suffering: + +"Well, that's your theory. But then their public is not ours. The +average Russian is not wide-awake enough to cooperate with the +authorities." He had in mind his own address at Moscow in which he had +appealed to the community at large for this very assistance in ferreting +out sedition. The Will of the People had come into existence since then. + +"Still, if our public were drawn into active cooperation with the +Government, if it became habituated to a sense of the monarch's +confidence in itself, it seems reasonable to suppose that the indolence +of the community would then disappear. No people is capable of greater +loyalty to the throne than your Majesty's. All that is needed is to +lend to this devotion tangibility. This and this alone would enable your +Majesty to cure the evil. What the body politic needs is judicious +internal treatment. Surgical operations have proven futile. These are my +sincerest convictions, your Majesty." + +"I know they are," the Czar answered musingly. + +"And the great point is, that with the intelligent classes actively +interested in the preservation of law and order, criminal societies of +any sort would find themselves without any ground to stand upon." + +The Czar had another cough, and then he said, flushing: + +"There is a simpler way to leave them without ground to stand upon, +surgical operations or no surgical operations. Call it what you will. +There is no sense in pampering them, Melikoff. Why, in western Europe +they execute common murderers. As to a gang of assassins like that, +death would be regarded a mild punishment." He lighted a cigarette, but +forthwith extinguished it and went on with emphasis: "We handle them +with kid gloves, Melikoff. That's why they take chances." + +He spoke with subdued anger, citing the republican uprising led by +aristocratic army officers in 1825, which his father (the man whose +portrait was on the right wall) quelled by means of field guns. +Loris-Melikoff demurred to the comparison, tactfully hinting that there +would be no betrayal of weakness in inviting the public to participate +in the extermination of crime by showing it signs of increased imperial +confidence, and the Czar softened again. He felt that the Armenian knew +how to save him and he willingly submitted to his and Princess +Dolgoruki's influence. But Fate was bent on tragedy. + +Alexander II. lacked anything but courage. Still, this continuous +living under fire had gradually unnerved him. The soldier on the +battlefield finds moral support in the presence of thousands of +comrades, all facing the same fate as he; whereas he was like a lone man +on top of a dynamite pile. And if his perils were shared by those about +him, this only added the agonising consciousness that his person carried +the shadow of destruction with it, endangering the life of every living +being that came near him. He knew, for example, that when he was at the +theatre candles were kept ready, in case the lights were blown out by an +explosion; that many people stayed away from the playhouse on such +occasions for fear of being destroyed along with their sovereign. His +pride would not let him feel low-spirited. He very often forced himself +to disdain caution, to act with reckless courage. Nevertheless he had a +dreary, jaded look. The notion that he, the most powerful of men, the +image of grandeur and human omnipotence, should tremble at every sound, +wounded his common human pride acutely. The consequence was that this +mightiest monarch in the world, the gigantic man of sixty-two, every bit +of him an Emperor, was at heart a terror-stricken infant mutely +imploring for help. He continued to appear in the streets of the +capital, accompanied by his usual escort and to return the salutes of +passers-by with his usual air of majestic ease. Now and then he went to +the theatre, and occasionally even beyond the scenes for a flirtation +with the actresses. But the public knew that besides his large uniformed +escort, his carriage was watched by hordes of detectives in citizen's +clothes, and that every inch of the ground which he was to traverse was +all but turned inside out for possible signs of danger. And those who +were admitted to his presence knew that underneath his grand, +free-and-easy bearing was a sick heart and a crushed spirit. That the +enemy was an unknown quantity was one of the sources of his growing +disquiet. The organised movement might be very large and it might be +ridiculously small, but with a latent half-Nihilist in the heart of +every subject. He was beginning to realise at last that he knew his +people scarcely better than he did the French or the English. He was +anxious to make peace with that invisible enemy of his, provided it did +not look as if he did. + +He was willing to be deceived, and Loris-Melikoff was about to help him +deceive himself. But destiny was against them both. He was an honest +man, Loris-Melikoff, serious-minded, public-spirited, one of the few +able statesmen Russia ever had; but his path was strewn with thorns. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE MYSTERY OF A SHOP. + + +A tall man with a reddish beard called at one of the police stations of +the capital about a cheese store which he was going to open on Little +Garden Street. He gave his name as Koboseff. When he had gone the +Captain of the station said to one of his roundsmen: + +"That fellow doesn't talk like a tradesman. I asked him a few questions, +and his answers were rather too polished for a cheese dealer." And +taking up his pen, he added, with a preoccupied air, "Keep an eye on +him, will you?" + +Little Garden Street was part of a route which the Emperor often took on +his way to or from his niece's residence, the Michail Palace, and +received the special attention of the police. + +The roundsman spoke to the agent of the house where Koboseff had rented +a basement for his projected shop and dwelling room; whereupon the agent +recalled that cheesemonger's handwriting had struck him as being too +good for a man of his class. Inquiry at the town at which Koboseff's +passport was dated brought the information that a document corresponding +in every detail to the one in question had actually been issued by the +local authorities. Koboseff was thus no invented name, and as the +description in the passport agreed with the appearance of the man who +had rented the basement, the St. Petersburg police saw no ground for +further suspicion. + +The cheese shop was opened in the early part of January, Koboseff having +moved in with a fair-complexioned woman whom he introduced as his wife. +Some three or four weeks later the head porter of the house notified the +police that Koboseff had boasted of the flourishing state of his +business, whereas in reality his shop attracted but very scant custom. +At the same time it was pointed out that there was a well-established +and prosperous cheese store close by, that the basement occupied by the +Koboseffs was scarcely the place one would naturally select for the +purpose, and that the rent was strikingly too high for the amount of +business Koboseff could expect to do there. To cap the climax, there was +some lively gossip among the neighbours about Mme. Koboseff, who had +been seen smoking cigarettes--a habit quite unusual for a woman of the +lower classes--and who often stayed out all night. + +"Koboseff" was Uric Bogdanovich, Pavel's "Godfather," and "Mme. +Koboseff" was Baska, formerly "housewife" of the dynamite shop and a +year previous to that in charge of a house in the south near which +Zachar and others attempted to blow up an imperial train. + +The cheese shop was often visited by Zachar, Purring Cat, the reticent +stalwart man with the Tartarian features, Pavel and other +revolutionists. The police kept close watch on the place, but, according +to all reports, no suspicious persons were ever seen to enter it. Upon +the whole the Koboseffs seemed to be real tradesmen, and as the +information concerning their passport was satisfactory, they were not +disturbed. A slim little man named Kurilloff who had played the part of +errand boy at the cheese shop had been arrested, but his detention had +nothing to do with the Koboseffs, and the police of Little Garden +Street had no idea of the arrest, while the officers who had made it +were unaware of the prisoner's connection with a suspicious shop. + +"If I were you I'd make missus behave," the head porter of the house +once said to Koboseff, speaking of his "wife." + +"Right you are," the cheesemonger replied. "Only my old woman is a tough +customer to handle, you know. I do tell her she had better mind the +house and ought to be ashamed of herself to smoke cigarettes, but she +doesn't care a rap, not she." + +"I would teach her if she was _my_ wife." + +The cheesemonger made a gesture of despair, and the porter said to +himself that there was nothing suspicious about him; that he was simply +a fellow without backbone and a fool, qualities which seemed to account +for Koboseff's incompetence as a business man. + + * * * * * + +"Well, Clanya," Pavel said to Mlle. Yavner, lazily addressing her in the +diminutive of his own coining. "I am afraid I shall have to exile you +for some time." + +"Exile me?" she asked absently without lifting her eyes from a heap of +type she was sorting and putting up in packages. She sat across the +table from the sofa upon which he was cuddling himself drowsily as a cat +does before a fireside. + +"Yes, that's what I'll have to do--pack you off, put you in a box, nail +you up tight, stick a label on it and ship you somewhere. 'To places not +so very distant,'" he added, mocking the official phrase used in +transporting people to eastern Siberia. + +She raised her eyes from her work, her fingers stiff and black with lead +dust. "What are you driving at, Pasha? Anything up? Or is it merely one +of those jokes under which one must write in big letters: 'This is a +joke?'" + +"Is _that_ a joke?" he asked, and burst into laughter. + +She resumed her work. The type she was sorting was intended for a +revolutionary printing office, having been sent to St. Petersburg by +Masha Safonoff, who had bought it of the foreman of the government's +printing office in Miroslav. + +"Oh, to all the diabolical devils with that type of yours, Clanya. Can't +you sit down by a fellow's side for a minute or two?" + +She got up, washed her hands and complied with his wish. As she played +with his hand she noticed the trace of blisters on his palm. Her face +darkened; but she asked no questions. After a little she demanded: "What +did you mean by 'exiling' me?" + +"Oh dash it all, Clanya. It's something serious. I'll tell it to you +some other time. I'm too lazy to be serious." He would have preferred to +be sprawling like this with her hands in his; luxuriating in the gleam +of her intelligent blue eyes and in the feminine atmosphere of her +person; but his excuse that it was "too serious" only sharpened her +determination to know what it was without delay. + +"What is it, Pasha?" + +"There you are," he said peevishly. "One can't have a minute's rest from +business, not a minute's rest." + +"Why did you hasten to speak of 'exiling' me, then?" she retorted +tartly. "Why didn't you keep it to yourself until you were again in a +mood for 'business'?" + +He had not kept it to himself simply because it was not easy for him to +keep anything from her. He was more apt to fly into a temper with her +than she with him, but in their mutual relations she was the stronger +vessel of the two and, in an imperceptible, unformulated way, he was +considerably under her thumb. When he heard or saw something new, +received some new impression, his first impulse was to share it with +her. If an opinion was formed in his mind he wondered, sometimes +timidly, whether she would concur with it. Timidly, because in many +instances, when he came bubbling over with enthusiasm over some scheme +of his own, she had cruelly dampened his fervour by merely extricating +the vital point of his argument from a surrounding tangle of roseate +phraseology. His great intellectual feast was to be in her room, +discussing theories, books, people with her. These discussions, which +sometimes lasted for hours, often called forth a snappish, bitter tone +on both sides, but they were at once an expression and a fostering +agency of that spiritual unity which was one of the chief sources of +their happiness in one another. + +"Well, there is very little to tell about," he said at last. "Something +is under way, and it has been decided to notify all illegals not in it +to vacate St. Petersburg until it's all over." + +The lines of her fresh-tinted face hardened into an expression of +extreme gravity and her fingers grew limp in his grasp. She withdrew +them. + +"Look at her!" he squeaked in a burst of merriment. + +"There is nothing to look at. I am not going." She dropped her glance. +She divined that his blisters had something to do with the digging of a +mine in which he took part. + +"Is it all settled?" + +"Oh, Pasha! Your jesting is so out of place," she returned sullenly. "I +am not going." + +"But the air is getting hot in St. Petersburg. Whew! The police are +suspicious, of course; they won't leave a stone unturned." + +He took hold of her tender girlish hand, but she withdrew it again, with +a gesture of impatience. + +"There will be something to do for you too later on," he comforted her, +guiltily. "It's going to be a big thing, the biggest of all. You'll come +back in a month or so." + +She made no answer. + +The two intersecting streets outside reeked and creaked and glittered +with the crispness of a typical St. Petersburg frost. It was about ten +in the morning, in the early part of January. The little parlour was +delightfully warm, with a dim consciousness of sleigh-furs, hack drivers +in absurd winter caps, pedestrians huddling themselves and wriggling and +grunting for an effeminating background to one's sense of shelter. The +even heat of the white glazed oven seemed to be gleaming and stirring +over the surface of the tiles like something animate, giving them an +effect of creamy mellowness that went to one's heart together with the +delicious warmth they radiated. Ever and anon a sleigh bell would tinkle +past and sink into Pavel's mood. There was a rhythm to the warm +stillness of the room. But Clara's silence tormented him. + +"We'll discuss it later on, Clanya. I'm too tired now. My brain won't +work. Let us play school," he pleaded fawningly, in burlesque Russian, +mimicking the accent of the Czech who taught Latin at the Miroslav +gymnasium. + +"Stop that, pray." + +He made a sorry effort to obey her, and finally she yielded, with a +smile and a Jewish shrug. He played a gymnasium teacher and she a pupil. +He made her conjugate his name as she would a verb; made puns on +Clanya, which is an unfinished Russian word meaning to bow, to greet, to +convey one's regards; mocked and laughed at her enunciation till his +eyes watered. Gradually he drifted into an impersonation of old Pievakin +and flew into a passion because her hearty laughter marred the illusion +of the performance. + +"You do need rest, poor thing," she said, looking at his haggard, worn +face. + +"Well, another few weeks and we shall be able to get all the rest we +want, if not in a cell, or in a quieter place still, in some foreign +resort, perhaps. I really feel confident we are going to win this time." + +"It's about time the party did." + +"It will this time, you may be sure of it. And then--by George, the very +sky will feel hot. Everything seems ready for a general uprising. All +that is needed is the signal. I can see the barricades going up in the +streets." He gnashed his teeth and shook her by the shoulders +exultantly. "Yes, ma'am. And then, Clanya, why, then we won't have to go +abroad for our vacation. One will be able to breathe in Russia then. +Won't we give ourselves a spree, eh? But whether here or abroad, I must +take you for a rest somewhere. Will you marry your love-lorn Pashka +then? I dare you to say no." + +"But I don't want to say no," she answered radiantly. + +They went to dinner together and then they parted. As they shook hands +he peered into her face with a rush of tenderness, as though trying to +inhale as deep an impression of her as possible in case either of them +was arrested before they met again. And, indeed, there was quite an +eventful day in store for her. + +One of the persons she was to see later in the afternoon was a man with +a Greek name. As she approached the house in which he had his lodgings, +she recognised in the gas-lit distance the high forehead and the boyish +face of Sophia, the ex-Governor's daughter. Sophia, or Sonia, as she was +fondly called, was bearing down upon her at a brisk, preoccupied walk. +As she swept past Clara, without greeting her, she whispered: + +"A trap." + +The lodging of the man with the queer name had been raided, then, and +was now held by officers in the hope of ensnaring some of his friends. +Clara had been at the place several times and she was afraid that the +porter of the house, in case he stood at his post in the gateway at this +minute, might recognise her. + +The dim opening of the gate loomed as a sickly quadrangular hole +exhaling nightmare and ruin. Turning sharply back, however, might have +attracted notice; so Clara entered the first gate on her way, four or +five houses this side of her destination, and when she reappeared a +minute or two later, she took the opposite direction. As she turned the +next corner she found herself abreast of a man she had noticed in the +streets before. He was fixed in her mind by his height and carriage. +Extremely tall and narrow-shouldered, he walked like a man with a sore +neck, swinging one of his long arms to and fro as he moved stiffly +along. The look he gave her made a very unpleasant impression on her. He +let her gain on him a little and then she heard his soft rubber-shod +footsteps behind her. + +It is a terrible experience, this sense of being dogged as you walk +along. It is tantalising enough when your desire to take a look at the +man at your heels is only a matter of curiosity which for some reason or +other you cannot gratify. Imagine, then, the mental condition of an +"illegal" shadowed by a spy or by a man he suspects of being one. He +tingles with a desire to quicken pace, yet he must walk on with the same +even, calm step; every minute or two he is seized with an impulse to +turn on the fellow behind him, yet he must not show the least sign of +consciousness as to his existence. It is the highest form of torture, +yet it was the daily experience of every active man or woman of the +secret organisation; for if the political detectives were spying upon +pedestrians right and left, the revolutionists, on their part, were apt +to be suspicious with equal promiscuity. Small wonder that some of them, +upon being arrested, hailed their prison cell as a welcome place of +rest, as a relief from the enervating strain of liberty under the +harrowing conditions of underground life. As a matter of fact this +wholesale shadowing seldom results in the arrest of a revolutionist. +Thousands of innocent people were snuffed to one Nihilist, and the +Nihilists profited by the triviality of suspicion. Most arrests were the +result of accident. + +At the corner of the next large thoroughfare she paused and looked up +the street for a tram-car. While doing so Clara glanced around her. The +tall man had disappeared. A tram-car came along shortly and she was +about to board it when she heard Sonia's voice once more. + +"You're being shadowed. Follow me." + +Sonia entered a crowded sausage shop, and led the way to the far end of +it in the rear of an impatient throng. Pending her turn to be waited on, +she took off her broad-brimmed hat, asking Clara to hold it for her, +while she adjusted her hair. + +"Put it on, and let me have your fur cap," she gestured. + +The homely broad-brimmed hat transformed Clara's appearance +considerably. It made her look shorter and her face seemed larger and +older. + +"I saw a tall fellow turn you over to one with a ruddy mug. The red man +is waiting for you outside now, but I don't think he had a good look at +your face. There is a back door over there." + +Clara regained the street through the yard, and sure enough, a man with +a florid face was leisurely smoking a cigarette at the gate post. He +only gave her a superficial glance and went on watching the street door +of the shop. She took a public sleigh, ordered the driver to take her to +the Liteyny Bridge, changed her destination in the middle of the +journey, and soon after she got off she took another sleigh for quite +another section of the city. In short, she was "circling," and when she +thought her trail completely "swept away," she went home on foot. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +A REASSURING SEARCH. + + +The capture of the man with the Greek name proved disastrous to the +Executive Committee. It was the first link in a chain of most important +arrests. The trap set at his house caught the very tall man with the +Tartarian features; this led to the arrest of Purring Cat, and the +residence of Purring Cat, in its turn, ensnared a pretentiously dressed +man, in whom the superior gendarme officers were amazed to find their +own trusted secretary, the man whom Makar knew as "the Dandy." Makar's +arrest at Miroslav had tended to strengthen the Dandy's position +somewhat, but now that he was in the hands of the enemy himself, +it seemed as if the medical student's sweeping system of +"counter-espionage" had burst like a bubble. Makar was in despair. He +spoke of new plans, of new sacrifices, until Zachar silenced him. + +"All in due time, my dear romanticist," he said to him. "A month or two +later I shall be delighted to be entertained with the fruit of your rich +fancy; not now, my boy." + +The four arrests were a severe blow to the undertaking of which Zachar +had been placed in charge. He was overworked, dejected, yet thrilling +with nervous activity. But his own days were numbered. An air of +impending doom hung over the Czar and his "internal enemies" alike. + +Good fortune seemed to attend the state police. While the gendarmes of +the capital were celebrating their unexpected haul an intellectual +looking man was locked up in a frontier town as a "vagrant," that is, as +a man without a passport, who subsequently proved to be one of the +active Terrorists the detectives had long been looking for. He was the +"grave bard," one of the twin poets of the party. Shortly after his +arrest the Russian government received word from the police of the +German capital that a prominent Russian Nihilist known among his friends +as "My Lord," a sobriquet due to his elegance of personal appearance and +address, had spent some time in Berlin and was now on his way to St. +Petersburg. A German detective followed the man to the frontier and +then, shadowed by Russian spies, he was tracked to a house on the Neva +Prospect, the leading street of St. Petersburg. There it was decided to +arrest him Friday, March 23. + +A little after 4 o'clock of that day Zachar and the ex-Governor's +daughter left their home, where they were registered as brother and +sister, and took a sleigh, alighting in front of the Public Library, in +the very heart of the city. Instead of entering the library, however, +which the sleigh-driver thought to be their destination, they parted, +continuing their several journeys on foot. + +It was an extremely cold afternoon. The beards of pedestrians and +sleigh-drivers and the manes of horses were glued with frost; their +breath came in short painful puffs. It was getting dark. The sky was a +spotless, almost a warm blue. To look at it you would have wondered +where this sharp, all-benumbing cold came from. There was an air of +insincerity about the crimson clearness of the afternoon light. + +Zachar wore a tall cap of Persian lamb, flattened at the top, and a +tight-fitting fur coat. He walked briskly, his chest thrown out, his +full pointed beard hoary with frost, his cheeks red with the biting +cold. + +Presently he found himself shadowed by a man in civilian clothes whom he +knew to be a gendarme in disguise. It was evident, however, that the spy +was following him merely as a suspicious person without having any idea +what sort of man his quarry was, and Zachar, with whom a hunt of this +kind was a daily occurrence, had no difficulty in "thrashing his trail." +He was bound for the cheese shop on Little Garden Street. This was +within a short walk from the Public Library, yet on this occasion it +took him an hour's "circling" to reach the place. + +About ten minutes after Zachar entered the cheesemonger's basement, the +head porter of the house met two police officers round the corner. One +of them was the captain of the precinct and the other, one of his +roundsmen. The Czar was expected to pass through this street in two +days, so one could not be too watchful over a suspicious place like +this. + +"There is somebody down there now," the head porter said to the captain, +with servile eagerness. "A big fellow with a long pointed beard. I have +seen him go down several times before. He looks like a business man, but +before he started to go down he stopped to look round." + +This stopping to look round was, according to a printed police circular, +one of the symptoms of Nihilism, so the roundsman was ordered to watch +until the suspicious man should re-emerge from the cheese shop. + +When the captain had gone the roundsman brushed out his icicled +moustache with his finger nails, and said with an air of authority: + +"Well, you take your post at the gate and I'll just go and change my +uniform for citizen's clothes in case it's necessary to see where that +fellow is going. Keep a sharp lookout on that cursed basement until I +get back, will you?" + +When he returned, in citizen's clothes, he found that the suspicious man +had left the store and that the head porter had set out after him, +leaving his assistant in his place. + +"There is another man down there now," the assistant porter whispered. +Presently the new visitor came out of the basement. As he mounted the +few steps and then crossed over, through the snow, to a sleigh standing +near by, he kept mopping his face with a handkerchief, thus preventing +the two spies from getting a look at his features. Seeing that he +boarded a hackney-sleigh, the roundsman did the same, ordering the +driver to follow along as closely as possible, but at this he lost time +in persuading the hackman that he was a policeman in disguise. The two +sleighs were flying through the snow as fast as their horses could run. +The policeman was far in the rear. For some ten minutes his eyes were +riveted to the suspicious man. Presently, however, the vehicle he was +shadowing turned a corner, and by the time he reached that point it was +gone. All sorts of sleighs, their bells jingling, were gliding along in +every direction, but the one he wanted was not among them. + +The head porter, who had started after the first man, in the absence of +the roundsman, had met with a similar defeat. After awhile the hackman +who had driven the second suspicious man returned to his stand. In +answer to inquiry he told how his fare had twice changed his +destination, finally alighted on a street corner, and turned into a +narrow alley. + +Meanwhile Zachar had called on My Lord. It was about seven o'clock. The +two revolutionists sat chatting in a cheerful gas-lit room, when the +host was called out into the corridor. As he was long in coming back, +Zachar went to the door, prepared for the worst. He found the corridor +full of gendarmes and police. It was evident that they had fought shy of +raiding My Lord's apartments for fear of violence, and had been +patiently waiting until his visitor should come out of his own accord. +Several of the gendarmes made a dash at Zachar, seizing him by both +arms. One of these was the spy from whom he had "circled" away near the +Public Library, soon after he had taken leave from the ex-Governor's +daughter three hours ago. Zachar's presence here was a surprise to this +gendarme, but the full importance of the man was still unknown to him. +The officer in command, however, knew who his prisoner was. + +"What is your name?" he addressed himself to Zachar, with the exaltation +of a man come upon a precious find. He knew but too well how anxious the +government was to capture him, but he had come here to arrest My Lord +without the remotest idea of finding this revolutionary giant in the +place. + +"Krasnoff," Zachar answered with dignity, in his deep-chested voice. + +"I beg your pardon," the officer returned, with a twinkle in his eye. "I +once had the pleasure of arresting you. Your name is Andrey Ivanovitch +Jeliaboff." + +"Oh, in that case I am pleased to meet you," the prisoner said with +playful chivalry. + +Jeliaboff's arrest made a joyous stir not only in the gendarmerie, but +also at court. Apart from the attempt to blow up an imperial train in +the south, in which he had played the leading part, he had been +described to the authorities as the most gifted and effective agitator +in the movement. + +The police at Little Garden Street were unaware of all this, but the +conduct of the two men who had visited the cheese shop that afternoon +seemed decidedly suspicious and lent a glare of colour to the +irrelevancies that seemed to enfold the place. + +The next morning Pavel called on the Koboseffs. As he entered the cheese +store he saw that the adjoining room was crowded with police officers. +In his first shock he was only conscious of the gleam of uniforms, of +Urie's and somebody else's voice and of his own sick despair. But the +sick feeling ebbed away, leaving him in a state of desperate, pugnacious +tranquillity, his mind on the revolver in his pocket. + +"Hello there!" he shouted, with the self-satisfied disrespect of a man +of the better classes addressing one of the lower, and at this he +surveyed the store with an air of contempt, as much as to say: "What a +den I did strike!" + +"Wife," he heard Urie's voice, "there is a gentleman in the shop." + +Baska, who had been calmly emptying a barrel of cheese into some boxes, +wiped her hands upon her apron and stepped behind the counter. + +"Is your Holland cheese any good?" Pavel asked, sniffing. "Are you sure +you can give me a pound of decent stuff?" + +She waited on him, simply, and after some more sniffing, at the wrapping +paper as well as the cheese, he let her make up the package. As he +walked toward the door his heart stood still for an instant. + +He was allowed to go. Whether he was followed by spies he did not know. +At all events, when he approached his "legal" residence at the house of +his high-born relative, after an hour's "circling," he felt perfectly +free from shadowing. He was greatly perplexed to think of the way Urie +and Baska had been allowed to continue in their role of a cheesemonger +couple; but, at all events, even if the true character of their shop had +not yet been discovered by the police officers he had seen there, it +seemed to be a matter of minutes when it would be. + + * * * * * + +In the morning of that day, a few hours before Pavel called on the +Koboseffs, the police captain of the Little Garden Street precinct had +asked the prefect of St. Petersburg to have the cheese shop examined +under the guise of a sanitary inspection. He was still uninformed of the +arrest of the big fellow with the pointed beard, much less of the fact +that he had proved to be one of the chieftains of the revolutionary +organisation, but the story of the two suspicious-looking visitors at +the cheese shop and their "circling" had made him uneasy. The Czar was +expected to pass through Little Garden Street on Sunday, which was the +next day, and one could not ascertain the real character of the +Koboseffs and their business too soon. Nevertheless the prefect was slow +to appreciate the situation. Indeed, it is quite characteristic of the +despotic chaos of a regime like Russia's that on the one hand people are +thrown into jail to perish there on the merest whim of some gendarme, +and, on the other, action is often prevented by an excess of red tape +and indolence in cases where there is ground for the gravest suspicion. +While hundreds of schoolboys and schoolgirls were wasting away in damp, +solitary cells because they had been suspected of reading some +revolutionary leaflet, the occupants of this basement, in whose case +suspicion was associated with the idea of a plot on the life of the +Czar, had not even been subjected to the summary search and questioning +to which every resident in Russia is ever liable. + +Finally, after considerable pleading on the part of the police captain, +General Mrovinsky, a civil engineer of the Health Department, an elderly +man with a kindly, genial face, was assigned to make the feigned +inspection. + +"Your Excellency will please see if they are not digging a mine there," +the police captain said to him, respectfully. "The Emperor often passes +that shop when he goes to the Riding Schools or to the Michail Palace, +and that cheese dealer and his wife are quite a suspicious-looking +couple. His Majesty is expected to pass the place to-morrow." + +The general entered the cheese shop accompanied by the police captain, +the captain's lieutenant and the head porter of the house. Koboseff came +out of the inner rooms to meet them. He turned pale, but this seemed +natural. + +"His Excellency represents the Health Department," said the captain. +"There is dampness in the next house, and His Excellency wishes to see +if your place is all right." + +"I am sorry to trouble you," said General Mrovinsky, kindly. "But +dampness is a bad thing to have in one's house, you know." + +"There is none here that I know of, sir," Koboseff replied +deferentially, "but, of course, a fellow must not be too sure, sir." + +Baska stood in a corner of the shop, bending over a barrel. While the +officers talked to Urie she threw a glance at the visitors over her +shoulder and resumed her work. + +The uniformed civil engineer made a close examination of the walls. The +one facing the street was covered with planking, and Koboseff explained +that he had had it done as a safeguard against dampness, but that there +was none. + +"But then cheese crumbs are apt to get into the cracks," urged General +Mrovinsky, taking hold of one of the shelves along that wall. "They +would decay there, don't you know, and that would be almost as bad as +dampness, wouldn't it?" He then inspected the two living rooms. In the +second of these he found a pile of hay. + +"It's from our cheese barrels," Koboseff explained; and pointing at +another pile he added: "And that's coke, sir." + +General Mrovinsky picked up a coal, examined it, threw it back and wiped +his fingers with some of the hay. + +"Everything is all right," he said to the police officers, with a look +of intelligence. He led the way back to the store and then back again to +the middle room. Here he took a firm hold of the planking that lined the +wall under the street window. He tried to wrench it off, but it would +not yield, and he let it go. + +"Everything is all right," he said to the captain, seating himself on a +sofa. A trunk and some pieces of furniture were moved from their places +and then put back. The general knew a merchant by the name of Koboseff, +so he asked the cheese dealer if he was a relative of his. Urie said no, +and after some conversation about the cheese business in general the +officials went away. + +"There is no mine in that place. You can make yourself perfectly easy +about it," Mrovinsky said to the captain, as they made their way to the +adjoining basement. + +It was while they were conversing leisurely, the old general seated on +the lounge, that Pavel came in. He was watched narrowly, but he played +his part well, and as the engineer had already intimated to the police +officers that there was nothing suspicious about the premises he was not +even shadowed. + +Thus reassured, the police of the locality set to work preparing Little +Garden Street for the Czar's drive to the Riding School. This included +an investigation as to the character of the occupants of all the other +shops and residences facing the street, as well as getting the pavement +in good repair. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE RED TERROR. + + +Meanwhile a reform measure which subsequently became known as "the +constitution of Loris-Melikoff" had been framed and submitted to the +Czar by the Minister of the Interior. The project called for the +convocation of a semi-representative assembly to be clothed with +consultative powers. It was framed in guarded language, great pains +having been taken to keep out anything like an allusion to parliamentary +government. + +"But it looks like the States-General," the Czar said to Loris-Melikoff. +The resemblance which the measure bore to the opening chapter in the +history of the French revolution, where representatives of the three +estates are convened in consultative parliament, made a disagreeable +impression on him. Still, the project was ingeniously worded as a +measure tending to "enhance the confidence of the monarch in his loyal +subjects"; so, upon a closer reading, the Czar warmed to it, and +returned the draft to Loris-Melikoff with his hearty approval. This took +place at 12 o'clock on Sunday, March 13, 1881, one day after the search +at the cheese store. It was decided to have the document read before the +cabinet on Wednesday, after which it was to be published over the +imperial signature in the _Official Messenger_. + +The Czar was dressed in the uniform of the Sappers of the Guards, whose +review he was about to attend at the Michail Riding Schools. + +"I pray your Majesty to forego the trip," Loris-Melikoff said, +solicitously. + +The Czar smiled. Princess Dolgoruki had made a similar request, and by +accentuating his danger they both only succeeded in challenging his +courage. He felt as if in the light of their appeal staying at home +would mean hiding. Instead of pleading with him for caution +Loris-Melikoff should have made an effort to secure a suspension of +hostilities in the enemy's camp. Had the revolutionists been aware of +what was coming a truce on their part would have been assured. And then, +little as the project to be divulged resembled a constitution in the +western sense of the word, it was yet the first approach to +representative legislation in the history of modern Russia. The +Nihilists were pledged to abandon their Terror the moment free speech +had been granted, and although no reference to questions of this +character was made in the "constitution," certain liberties in that +direction might have followed as a matter of course, as an offspring of +the new spirit which the measure was expected to inaugurate. A +distinguished revolutionary writer has pointed out how easy it would +have been for Loris-Melikoff to bring his expectations to the knowledge +of the Executive Committee of the Nihilists by setting a rumour on foot +among the professional and intellectual classes, many of whose +representatives, as the Vice-Emperor knew but too well, were in touch +with the central organization of the Will of the People. Perhaps this +method of communicating with the revolutionists had not occurred to +Loris-Melikoff; perhaps the iron-clad secrecy that enclosed his project +was a necessary protection against the enemies of reform at court. +However it may have been, neither the revolutionists nor their liberal +allies had any inkling as to the document about to be published in the +_Official Messenger_. Instead, they saw the police and the gendarmerie +continuing their riot of administrative violence; instead, they heard of +an order by virtue of which a number of revolutionists who had served +their term within prison walls at Kara, Siberia, and been admitted to +partial freedom in the penal colony outside, had suddenly been put in +irons and thrown back into their cells; whereupon some of them had +committed suicide rather than return to the tortures of their former +life. All of which had added gall to the bitterness of the +revolutionists at large and whetted their distrust of the "crafty +Armenian," as they called Loris-Melikoff. + + * * * * * + +The Czar's favourite coachman, a stalwart, handsome fellow, with a thick +blond beard and clear blue eyes, sat on the box of the closed imperial +carriage, waiting in the vast courtyard of the Winter Palace. An escort +of six lusty Cossacks, two gendarme officers and one of the several +chiefs of police of the capital held themselves in readiness near by, +the Cossacks on their mounts, the other three in their open sleighs. +Presently a great door flew open and the Emperor appeared, accompanied +by an adjutant and a sergeant of the page corps. He wore a military +cape-cloak and a helmet. While the page held the carriage door open, the +Czar said to the coachman: + +"By Songsters' Bridge!" + +This was not his habitual route to the Riding Schools. Not that he was +aware of the suspicions which the cheese shop on Little Garden Street +had aroused. He had not the least idea of the existence of such a shop. +He had decided on the new route merely as a matter of general +precaution, in case there was a mine somewhere. As to pistol shots he +was sufficiently screened by the walls of his carriage as well as by the +bodies of his cossacks and their horses. + +That calm feeling of reverent affection with which the average +Englishman hails his sovereign is unknown in Russia. But whether with +reverence or mute imprecations, the coach of a Czar disseminates thrills +of fright as it proceeds. The cavalcade of horsemen and sleighs, with +the great lacquered carriage in the centre, was sailing and galloping +along like a grim alien force, diffusing an atmosphere of terror. To +those who saw it approaching the fiery cossacks on their fiery horses +looked like a ferocious band of invaders, their every fibre spoiling for +violence, rushing onward on an errand of conquest and bloody reckoning. + +It was a cloudy day. The streets were covered with discoloured, brownish +snow; the snow on the roofs, window-sills, cornices, gate-posts, was of +immaculate whiteness, apparently devoid of weight, smooth and neat, as +though trimmed by some instrument. There were few people along the route +followed by the little procession and most of these were in their Sunday +clothes. Now a civilian snatched off his cap spasmodically, now a +soldier drew himself up with all his might, as though trying to lift +himself off his feet. Here and there a drunken citizen was staggering +along. Every person the carriage passed was scrutinised by every member +of the escort, by the cossacks as well as by the chief of police and the +gendarme officers. The Riding Schools were soon reached. + +The Emperor left the building less than an hour later. He was +accompanied by Grand Duke Michail, his brother, the two going to the +Michail Palace, where they were to have lunch with the Czar's niece. + +Sophia, the ex-governor's daughter, was watching the imperial carriage +from a point of vantage. Presently she turned into a neighbouring +street, and passing a fair-complexioned young man in a dark overcoat, +who held a white package in his hand, she raised her handkerchief to her +nose. The young man then hurried away toward Catharine Canal. Three +other men, one of them a gigantic looking fellow, stood at so many +different points, and at sight of Sophia with her handkerchief to her +nose, they all started in the same direction as the first man, while the +young woman walked over to the Neva Prospect from which she crossed a +bridge to the opposite side of Catharine Canal. + +It was half past two when the imperial carriage, surrounded by the six +cossacks and followed by the gendarme officers and the chief of police, +set out on their homebound journey. The handsome coachman let out his +horses. The group was scudding along at top speed. The chief of police +stood up in his sleigh, one of his gloved hands on the shoulder of his +driver, as he strained his eyes now to the right now to the left, after +the manner of the human figure on the face of a certain kind of clocks. +The carriage turned to the right, passing a detachment of marines who +saluted the Czar by presenting arms. The carriage was now on one of the +banks of the Catharine Canal, an iron railing to the right, a row of +buildings to the left. An employe of a horse-car company, who was +levelling off a ridge of caked snow at this moment, hastily rested his +crowbar against the iron railing and bared his head. Some distance in +front of him a young man in a dark overcoat, and with a white package +in his hand, was trudging along the canal side of the street. He was +passed and left in the rear by a man in the uniform of a hospital nurse +of the guards. On the sidewalk to the left of the Czar, another man, +also in military uniform, was moving rapidly along, while from the +opposite direction, in the middle of the snow-covered street, came a boy +pulling a little sled with a basket of meat on it. Sophia was looking on +from the other side of the canal. + +Colonel Dvorzhitzky (the chief of police) was scanning the sidewalk to +the left, when a terrific crash went up from under the Czar's carriage. +It was as if a mass of deafening sound had lain dormant there, in the +form of a vast closed fan, and the fan had suddenly flown open. The +colonel's horses reared violently, hurling him over the shoulder of his +coachman. While he was surveying the left side of the street, the +employe of the tramway company and several military people, coming up +alongside the railing, had seen the young man in the dark overcoat lift +his white package and throw it under the Czar's carriage. The carriage +came to a sudden halt amid a cloud of smoke and snow dust. A second or +two passed before any of them could realise what it all meant. The young +man turned about and broke into a run. + +"Catch him! Hold him!" the pedestrians shrieked frantically, dashing +after the running man. + +He had reached a point some thirty feet back of the imperial carriage +when he was hemmed in. One of the cossacks and the boy lay in the snow +shrieking. One of the rear corners of the carriage was badly shattered. +The rest of it was uninjured, but during the first minute or two its +doors remained closed, so that the bystanders could not tell whether +the Czar was hurt or not. Then the chief of police rushed up to the +vehicle and flung the right door open. The Czar was unhurt, but ghastly +pale. He sat bending slightly forward, his feet on the bearskin covering +the floor, a gilt ash receiver on a shelf in front of him. + +"The guilty man has been caught, your Imperial Majesty!" Colonel +Dvorzhitzky burst out. + +"Has he?" the Emperor asked, in intense agitation. + +"He has, your Imperial Majesty. They are holding him. May I offer you to +finish the journey in my sleigh?" + +"Yes, but I first want to see the prisoner." + +Pervaded by the conviction that another plot on his life had failed, the +Czar stepped out of the carriage, and accompanied by a group of +officers, some from his escort and others from among the passers-by, he +crossed over to the sidewalk that ran along the canal railing, erect and +majestic as usual, but extremely pale with excitement, and then turning +to the right he walked toward where a group of uniformed men were +holding a fair-complexioned beardless young fellow against the railing. +People, mostly in military uniforms, came running from every direction. + +Somebody asked: "How is the Emperor?" + +"Thank God," answered the Czar, "I have escaped, but----" and he pointed +at the wounded cossack and boy. + +"It may be too soon to thank God," said the prisoner. + +"Is this the man who did it?" the Czar asked, advancing toward him. "Who +are you?" + +"My name is Glazoff." + +The Czar turned back. He had made a few steps, when a man who stood no +more than three feet from him raised a white object high over his head +and dashed it to the ground, between the Emperor and himself. + +There was another explosion, still more violent and deafening than the +first. The air was a turmoil of smoke, snow-dust and shreds of uniforms, +concealing everything else from view. Sophia hurried away. + +More than half a minute later, when the chaos had partly cleared away, +the Czar was seen in a sitting posture on the snow-covered sidewalk, +leaning against the railing, his large oval head bare, his cape-cloak +gone. He was breathing hard. His face was in blood, the flesh of his +bared legs lacerated, the blood gushing from them over the snow. A heap +of singed, smoking tatters nearby was all that had been left of his +cloak. + +With cries of horror and of overpowering pity the bystanders rushed +forward. Among them was a man with a bomb under his coat like the two +which had just exploded. He was one of the four men who had shifted +their posts when they saw Sophia raising her handkerchief to her nose. +Had the second bomb failed to do its bloody work, this Terrorist would +have thrown his missile when the imperial carriage came by his corner. +As he beheld the Czar on the ground and bleeding, however, he +instinctively flung himself forward to offer help to the suffering man. + +At sight of the prostrated Czar the men who held the author of the first +explosion, began to shower blows on him. + +"Don't," he begged them, shielding his head and face. "I meant the good +of the people." + +Two yards from the Czar lay bleeding the unconscious figure of a +civilian. Further away were several other prostrated men, in all sorts +of uniforms. + +"Help!" the Czar uttered in a faint voice. + +Somebody handed him a handkerchief, which he put to his face, muttering +"Cold, cold." Several of the marines who had saluted him a few minutes +ago and two guardsmen placed him on Colonel Dvorzhitzky's sleigh. + +When Grand Duke Michail appeared on the scene he found his brother +rapidly sinking. + +"Sasha,[C] do you hear me?" he asked him, with tears in his eyes. + + [C] Diminutive of Alexander. + +The bystanders, who had never before heard their Czar addressed in the +form of affectionate familiarity, were thrilled with a feeling of +heart-tearing pity and of the most fervent devotion. Most of them had +sobs in their throats. + +"Yes," the Czar answered faintly. + +"How do you feel, Sasha?" + +"To the Palace--quick," the Czar whispered. And upon hearing somebody's +suggestion that he be taken to the nearest house for immediate relief, +he uttered: + +"Bear me to the palace--there--die----." + +He reclined between two cossacks, with a gendarme officer facing him and +supporting his legs. This is the way he returned home. Pedestrians met +him with gestures of horrified perplexity and acute commiseration now. + +The crowd at one corner of Catharine Canal was a babel of excitement and +violence. In their mad rush for the man who threw the second bomb, the +bystanders were accusing each other, grabbing at each other, +quarrelling, fighting. As Nihilists were for the most part people of +education, every man who looked college-bred was in danger of his life. +Among those who were beaten to a pulp in this wild melee were two +political spies who had the appearance of university students. A shout +went up that the thrower of the fatal bomb had vaulted over the fence of +the Michail gardens nearby, and then the mob broke down part of that +fence, and ruined the gardens in a wild but vain search for the +Terrorist. People were seized and hustled off to the station houses by +the hundred. + +The heir apparent, a fair-complexioned Hercules, was on his way to the +Winter Palace surrounded by a strong escort of mounted men. It was the +first time he had appeared in the streets so accompanied. The cluster of +horsemen and sleighs that had left the palace three hours before never +returned; this one was coming in its place; but the effect of grim +detachment, of fierce challenge was the same. + + * * * * * + +An hour had elapsed. The flag over the Winter Palace which denotes +Imperial presence was put at half-mast. Church bells were tolling the +death of Alexander II. and the accession of Alexander III. + +The new Czar was by his father's bedside. He was even more powerfully +built than he, but he lacked his grace and the light of his intelligent +eyes--a physical giant with a look of obtuse honesty on a fair, bearded +round face. An English diplomatist who understood him well has said that +"he had a mind not only commonplace, but incapable of receiving new +ideas." When he saw his father breathe his last, he exclaimed: "This is +what we have come to!"--a celebrated ejaculation which an archbishop +uttered at the funeral of Peter the Great in 1725. This was his first +utterance as Emperor of Russia. Its puerile lack of originality was +characteristic of the man. + +Princess Dolgoruki fainted, and she had no sooner been brought to than +the packing of her trunks was ordered by the sons of her dead husband. + +The palace was surrounded by a strong cordon of cossacks. Palace Square +was thronged, the neighbouring streets were tremulous with subdued +excitement. Some people were sincerely overcome with grief and horror; +others were struggling to conceal their exultation. There were such as +wept and cursed the Nihilists by way of displaying their own loyalty, +and there were such as burst into tears from the sheer solemnity and +nervousness of the moment. But the great predominating feeling that +pervaded these crowds, eclipsing every other sentiment or thought, was +curiosity. "What is going to happen next?"--this was the question that +was uppermost in the minds of these people in their present fever of +excitement. Had a republic been proclaimed with the Executive Committee +of the Nihilists as a provisional government, they would have sworn +their allegiance to the bomb-throwers as readily as they did, on the +morrow, to the son of the assassinated Emperor. Had the Terrorists +succeeded, the same bearded bishops who blessed and sounded the praises +of the new Czar would have blessed and sounded the praises of those who +had killed his father. + + * * * * * + +Pavel was in a suburb of the capital, when he first heard the melancholy +tolling of the church bells. + +"What's the matter?" he asked an elderly man who was walking with a +sleigh-load of bricks, the reins in his hands. + +"They say our little father, the Czar, has been killed," the other +answered, making the sign of the cross with his free hand. "People say +the Czarowitz is going to cut down the term of military service. Is it +true, sir?" + +"What is true?" Pavel asked. He was literally dazed with excitement. + +"A son of mine is in the army, sir," the other explained reverently. "So +I wonder if the new Czar will be easier on the soldiers, sir." + +Pavel hailed the first hackman he came across. He was burning to know +the details of the assassination and to tell Clara that the first man he +accosted on the great news of the hour had shown indifference to the +death of the monarch. + +When his sleigh reached the Neva Prospect, he saw the new Czar, +surrounded by a cohort of officers in dazzling uniform, passing along +the thoroughfare. The crowds were greeting him with wild cheers. They +cheered their own emotions at sight of the man whose father had come to +so tragic a death, and they cheered their own servility to the master of +the situation. + +These shouts filled Pavel with a mixed sense of defeat and triumph. The +gloomier feeling predominated. The world looked as usual. It did not +look as if this cheering, servile, stolid mob would ever rise against +anything. + + * * * * * + +That evening placards bearing the name of the Executive Committee +appeared on the walls of public buildings. They announced the death of +Alexander II. and admonished his successor to adopt a liberal policy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +THE REVELATION. + + +Every resident in the capital was being scanned and spied after, and +every house-porter was kept peeking and seeking and reporting at the +police station of his precinct. The railway stations were teeming with +spies and a system was introduced by which every hack-driver was +expected to spy on his fare. The effect of it all was that the great +majority of St. Petersburg's population was in a state of unspeakable +terror. Curiosity, pity and everything else had given way to a nervous +feeling of self-preservation. People walked through the streets hastily. +The sight of a policeman was enough to send a twinge of fright into the +heart of the most loyal government clerk; everybody was afraid of +everybody else. One avoided to utter such words as "Czar," "police," +"government." As to the Nihilists, one literally dreaded to think of +them. People who had never had a liberal thought in their brain were +tremulous with distrust of their own souls. + +And through all this all-pervading panic Clara was busy posting +revolutionary proclamations in the streets, distributing tracts among +students and working-people, keeping "business" appointments with her +"illegal" friends. Pavel, in his turn, had all he could do to attend to +the needs of some of the out-of-town "circles." The revolutionists +throughout the country were clamouring for information, for +proclamations, for speakers; so that the seventy or eighty men and women +who formed the innermost organisation were as feverishly busy in their +way as the police and the gendarmes were in theirs. + +The authorities were ransacking the capital for Nihilists in general and +for the cheesemonger couple in particular, but during the first few +hours following the two explosions their eagerness was centered on the +man who had thrown the fatal bomb. The search for that man soon proved +superfluous, however. + +The civilian who was picked up unconscious near where the Czar was +stricken down had been taken to a hospital. Late in the evening he had a +brief interval of consciousness. + +"Who are you?" an officer then asked him. + +"I don't know," he answered. He had a relapse from which he never awoke. +The front of his body, particularly the inner side of one arm, was +covered with ghastly wounds, from which experts inferred that at the +time of the explosion he could not have stood more than three feet from +the Czar. This, according to some eye-witnesses of the catastrophe, was +the distance between the deceased monarch and the man who threw the +second bomb. After two days of searching and sniffing the police +discovered the unknown man's lodging, where they found some +revolutionary literature and other evidence that pointed to him as the +author of the fatal explosion. He had stood so close to the Czar that it +was impossible for him to make a target of his victim without making one +of himself. His real name still remained unknown. + +As to the first bomb-thrower, he proved to be a college student named +Rysakoff. In the hands of the gendarme officers and the procureur he +broke down and told all he knew; but it appeared that he knew very +little. He had been one of a number of volunteers who offered to attack +the Emperor under the command of Zachar. When Zachar's arrest became +known to the Executive Committee things had begun to be rushed. Sophia +Perovskaya, the ex-governor's daughter, had taken his place, and it was +decided to make the assault without delay. Zachar had been arrested on +Friday evening. As it was known to Sophia that the Czar would visit the +Riding Schools on the next Sunday, the attempt was fixed for that +occasion. The Terrorists immediately connected with the plot held their +gatherings at a "conspiracy lodgings" kept by a man and woman Rysakoff +did not know. There the volunteers met Sophia and one of the inventors +of the self-igniting shell (the man with the priestly face whom we saw +at the meeting of the Executive Committee at which Clara's wedding was +to be celebrated). On Sunday morning (the day of the assassination) the +volunteers--three college men and an artisan--called at the same +gathering place. They found two finished bombs there and soon Sophia +arrived with two more. Where the bomb factory was Rysakoff did not know. +Sophia explained that it took a whole night to make the four portable +machines and that more than four volunteers could not be accommodated. +She then drew a rough map of the Czar's expected route, with four dots +for the posts of the four bomb-throwers. There were two sets of dots on +the diagram. In case the Czar failed to include Little Garden Street in +his route, the Terrorists were to shift their positions to Catharine +Canal and two neighbouring streets. + +That afternoon, as Rysakoff stood on his post near Little Garden Street, +Sophia passed by him, her handkerchief to her nose (the same sort of +signal which the same young woman had given a year and a half before to +the man who fired the mine which blew up the imperial train near +Moscow). That meant that the Czar was not passing through Little Garden +Street. Accordingly, Rysakoff hastened over to Catherine Canal. There, +after he had thrown the bomb and while the Czar was speaking to him, he +saw the three other volunteers each on his post. + +The second bomb-thrower was known to Rysakoff under the name of "the +Kitten." His real name he did not know. + +He also gave the police the address of the "conspiracy lodgings," which +were located on the sixth floor of a house on Waggon Street, and an hour +or two later, at midnight, two days after the killing of the Czar, the +procureur, accompanied by gendarmes and police, knocked at one of the +doors of that apartment. + +"Who is there?" a masculine voice asked from within. + +"Police and the procureur." + +"What do you want?" + +"Open the door at once or we'll break it down." + +While they were raining blows on the door, a succession of pistol shots +was heard within. Another door flew open, at the end of the corridor, +and a woman made her appearance. + +"We surrender," she said. "Pray send for a doctor. Look out, don't pass +through this door. There are explosives there." + +Inside they found the fresh corpse of a man lying in a pool of blood. It +was the gay poet; and the woman was Hessia Helfman, the dark little +Jewess with the frizzled hair who was married to Purring Cat. It was she +and the man now lying dead from his own pistol shots who had been in +charge of this "conspiracy lodgings." Among the things found in the +apartment were the two bombs which had been brought back from the scene +of the assassination; the rough map made by Sophia on the morning before +the attack and a large quantity of revolutionary literature. + +The former "conspiracy lodgings" were now a police trap, and on the very +next morning it caught a big burly man whom Rysakoff identified as +Timothy Michailoff, the one mechanic among the four men who had been +armed with bombs on the fatal morning. Michailoff's memorandum book +furnished the police some important addresses, but the great surprise of +that eventful week did not come until the following day, March 17th, and +when it did it was anything but a source of self-congratulation to the +authorities. + +About ten o'clock in the morning of that day the porters of the house on +Little Garden Street where the Koboseffs kept their shop reported to the +roundsman that the cheese dealer and his wife had not been home since +the previous evening, and that their shop was still closed. The +roundsman, who, like every member of the St. Petersburg police during +those days, was overworked and badly in need of rest, made no reply. An +hour later the porter accosted him again: + +"The shop is still closed. Customers have been around and there is +nobody in." + +"Oh, I have no time to bother about it." + +"But I think I saw something in that store, some strange looking tools," +pleaded the porter. + +"The devil you did," the roundsman said, as much with irritation as with +amazement. + +The statement was reported to the captain, who communicated it to his +superiors, until finally an order was obtained to raid the shop. A +search was made, more thorough than the first, and with quite different +results. The lounge in the living room upon which General Mrovinsky had +sat while speaking to Koboseff was found to contain a heap of earth, and +when the planks under the window of the middle room were removed--the +very ones which General Mrovinsky had made a feeble attempt to detach in +the presence of Koboseff and the police--a large yawning hole presented +itself to view. When this part of the wall had been torn down, the +aperture proved to be the mouth of a subterranean passage enclosed in +wood. Seven feet from the shop began a charge of a hundred pounds of +dynamite with an electric battery near by and wires running along the +gallery back to the middle room. Everything was in complete readiness. +All that was necessary to explode the mine was to connect the wires. + +As was learned subsequently, this mine had been the leading feature of +the plot, the bombs having been added in case the Czar left Little +Garden Street out of his route or the mine failed of its deadly purpose +for some other reason. Of the existence of such a mine Rysakoff had not +the remotest idea until he heard of it at the trial. + + * * * * * + +On the Friday afternoon immediately preceding the arrest of Jeliaboff +(Zachar) the porter of the house where he and Sophia were registered as +brother and sister met them at the gate as they were leaving the house +together; and later, at 9 o'clock in the evening, he saw Sophia return +alone. The next morning, after Jeliaboff had spent his first night in +prison, the police, in their effort to discover his residence, ordered +every porter in the city to ascertain who of his tenants had been absent +from home that night. When the porter rang Sophia's bell that morning +there was no response. He reported it at the police station where he +was told to try again. At 2 o'clock he saw Sophia. + +"I have received some blanks from the police," he said. "Every tenant +must state his occupation and place of business." + +"My brother is working now," Sophia answered. "When he comes home I'll +tell him about it." + +Two hours later she went out again, and in order to avoid passing the +porter at the gate, she gained the street through a little dry goods +shop that had a rear door into that yard, buying something for a +pretext. She came back, by way of the same dry goods shop, at 9 o'clock +in the evening and that was the last that was ever seen of her in that +neighbourhood. The next morning the porter reported the disappearance of +the couple. + +When the police searched the deserted apartment they found a number of +revolutionary publications, several tin boxes like those which formed +the shells of the two exploding machines seized at the "conspiracy +house" kept by Hessia and the "gay poet," and several cheeses bearing +the same trade-mark as those in Koboseff's shop. + +Meanwhile Jeliaboff had heard the solemn tolling of the bells in his +prison cell. In the excitement of the hour a gendarme on duty in the +prison corridor answered his questions through the peep-hole, in +violation of regulations. Jeliaboff at once sent word to the procureur, +assuming responsibility for the entire plot, as an agent of the +Executive Committee. + +Sophia knew through a certain high official all that transpired between +Jeliaboff and the procureur. She knew that the authorities were turning +the capital inside out in their search for the woman who had lived with +Jeliaboff as his sister and for the Koboseff couple, yet in spite of all +the pressure the Nihilists brought to bear on her, persuading her to +seek temporary retirement, she, like Urie and Baska, remained in the +heart of St. Petersburg, in the very thick of her party's activity. +Clara saw her at a meeting during that week. + +"You need rest, Sonia. You look tired." + +"Do I?" Sophia answered with a smile. "So do you. Everybody does these +days." + +Her smile was on her lips only. Her blue eyes were inscrutably grave, +but Clara saw a blend of lofty exaltation and corroding anguish in them. +She knew how dear Jeliaboff was to her. She had been craving to speak to +her of him, of Hessia and of the "gay poet," who had committed suicide +at the time of Hessia's arrest; but at this moment it was Sophia herself +who filled her mind. + +"Sonia!" Clara said, huskily. + +"What is it, child?" the other asked, kindly. + +For an answer Clara looked her in the face, smiling shame-facedly. She +did feel like an infant in her presence, although Sophia, with her small +stature and fresh boyish face, looked the younger of the two. She did +not know herself what she wanted to say. She was burning to cover her +with kisses and to break into sobs on her breast, but Sophia was graver +and more taciturn than usual to-day, so she held herself in check. Her +passion for tears was subdued. She sat by Sophia's side absorbed in her +presence without looking her in the face, tingling with something like +the feeling of people in a graveyard, in a moment of solemn ecstasy. + +Clara came away burdened with unvoiced emotion. She said to herself that +when she saw Pavel she would find relief in telling him how she adored +Sophia and how thirsty her heart was because she had not unbosomed +herself of these feelings to her; but when she and Pavel were alone she +said nothing. + + * * * * * + +The porters of the house from which Sophia had vanished were asked at +the police station whether they would be able to single her out in a +street crowd. They had to admit that they were not sure whether they +would. She had lived under their eye for eight months, but she had +always managed to pass through the gate, where they were usually on +duty, so as to leave no clear impression of her features on their minds. +Finally, on the sixth day, it was discovered that the proprietress of +the little dry goods store had a clear recollection of her face. This +woman, accompanied by a police officer, then spent hours driving about +through the busiest streets, until, with a shout of mixed joy and +fright, she pointed out Sophia in a public sleigh. + +It was not many days before Kibalchich, the man with the Christlike +face, who was one of the inventors and makers of the four bombs, and +another revolutionist were arrested in a cafe, through an address found +in Timothy Michailoff's note-book. + + * * * * * + +The trial of the six regicides so far captured, Jeliaboff, Sophia, +Kibalchich, Hessia, Rysakoff, and Timothy Michailoff, was begun by a +special Court of the Governing Senate for Political Cases, on April 8. +That Purring Cat and the man with the Tartarian face, both of whom were +in prison now, had taken part in the digging of the Koboseff mine, was +still unknown to the police. Nor had the authorities as yet been +informed of the fact that another "political" in their hands--the +undersized man who had played the part of shop-boy to the +cheese-dealer--had had something to do with the same conspiracy. + +Complete reports of the trial appeared in the newspapers, and the +testimony and speeches of the accused were read and read again. + +Jeliaboff ("Zachar") declined a lawyer, taking his defence in his own +hands. His legal battles with the presiding judge, his resource, his +tact and his eloquence, made him the central figure of the proceedings. +He began by challenging the court's jurisdiction in the case. "This +court represents the crown, one of the two parties concerned," he said, +"and I submit that in a contention between the government and the +revolutionary party there could be only one judge--the people; the +people either by means of a popular vote, or through its rightful +representatives in parliament assembled, or, at least, a jury +representing public conscience." Declarations of this kind, Kibalchich's +narrative as to how the blind brutality of the government had +transformed peaceful social workers into Terrorists, and the effect of +simple, dignified sincerity which marked the conduct of all the +prisoners produced such a profound impression, that at the time of the +next important political trial scarcely any reports were allowed to be +published. + +The six regicides were sentenced to death, the execution of Hessia +Helfman, who was about to become a mother, being postponed and later +commuted. When the parents of Kolotkevich (Purring Cat) asked to be +allowed to bring up their son's child, the request was refused on the +ground that it was the child of two regicides and should be brought up +under special care. The result of this special care was that the child, +like its pardoned mother, soon died. + +Sophia and the four condemned men died on the gallows, on a public +square. They were taken to their death on two "shame waggons," dressed +in convict clothes, each with a board inscribed with the words "criminal +of state" across his or her breast. The procession was accompanied by a +force of military large enough to conquer a country like Belgium. Sophia +was the first woman executed on Russian soil since 1719. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE CZAR TAKES COURAGE. + + +Alexander III. and his court moved to the long-deserted imperial palace +at Gatchina, a village 28 English miles from St. Petersburg. The young +Czar and his entourage were in a state of nervous tension. Economically, +the country was in the throes of hard times. Districts rich in the +potentialities of industry and prosperity were in the grip of famine. +Driven by bad crops and extortionate taxes, thousands of village +families were abandoning their homes to go begging. Cities were crowded +with such mendicants from surrounding villages, and the industrial +centres were full of workmen out of employment. Politically, a +demoralising feeling of suspense hung over the empire. The masses had +seen one Czar--the ward of a vigilant guardian angel--prostrated. The +crown's prestige was shaken, and the Czar's seeking refuge in a secluded +village did anything but retrieve it. The number of _lese majeste_ cases +had suddenly grown so large that by a special imperial ukase these +offences were transferred from the publicity of the courts to the +obscure depths of "justice by administrative order." From several places +came reports of riots against the police, while the universities +manifested their hostility to the throne quite openly. Subscription +lists for a monument to the assassinated Czar were torn to pieces and +those who circulated them were publicly hissed and insulted. The +portents of turbulence were in the air. + +Loris-Melikoff submitted to the new Czar the "constitution" of which +Alexander II. had approved an hour before his violent death. Alexander +III. read it and wrote on the margin of the paper: "Very well +conceived"; and two days later, after the project had been carried at a +cabinet meeting by a vote of eight against five, the Czar, while +conversing with his brother, Grand Duke Vladimir, on the measure to be +introduced, said, joyfully: + +"I feel as though a mountain had rolled off my shoulders." + +But the conservative party at court had the support of a new power +behind the throne. M. Pobiedonostzeff, formerly tutor of the present +Czar and now his favourite adviser, was a man of much stronger purpose +than Loris-Melikoff. He fought against the innovation tooth and nail, +and the publication of it in the _Official Messenger_ was postponed from +day to day. The leader of the Panslavists was invited from Moscow; every +conservative influence was brought to bear upon a Czar who was +absolutely incapable of forming his own opinion. All this was done in +the strictest secrecy from Loris-Melikoff. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, during Easter week, seven days after the approval of the +"constitution" by a majority of the ministers and twelve days subsequent +to the execution of the regicides, a furious anti-Jewish riot broke out +in Elisavetgrad, a prosperous city in the south. A frenzied drink-crazed +mob had possession of the town during two days, demolishing and +pillaging hundreds of houses and shops, covering whole streets with +debris and reducing thousands of people to beggary. And neighbouring +towns and villages followed the example of the larger city. + +The Czar took alarm. It looked like the prelude to a popular upheaval. + +"It's only an anti-Semitic disturbance, your Imperial Majesty," +Pobiedonostzeff reassured him. "There was one like that ten years ago, +in Odessa." + +The Elisavetgrad outbreak was, indeed, a purely local affair, but it +happened at a time that was highly favourable to occurrences of that +nature. Originally organised by some high-born profligates, victims of a +gang of Jewish usurers, it had nothing to do with the general situation +save in so far as there was in the hungry masses a blind disposition to +attack somebody; a disposition coupled with a feeling that the usual +ties of law and order had been loosened. When, in addition, the target +of assault happened to be the stepchild in Russia's family of peoples, +the one forever kicked and cuffed by the government itself, the rioters' +sense of security was complete. Moreover, among the victims of Jewish +usurers were hundreds of army officers and civil officials who lived +beyond their means, and from these came a direct hint at impunity. The +attack had been carefully planned, but the imbruted mob acted on its own +logic, with the result that thousands of artisans, labourers, poor +tradesmen, teachers, rabbis, dreamers, were plundered and ill-treated +while the handful of usurers escaped. + +The promise of impunity was fulfilled. Neighbouring towns and villages +followed the example of Elisavetgrad, and ten days later, May 8-9, +similar atrocities, but with a far greater display of fury and +bestiality, occurred in Kieff, where a dozen murders and an enormous +list of wounded and of outraged women was added to the work of +devastation and plunder. The Kieff authorities encouraged all this in a +thousand ways, while individual officers and men took part in the +pandemonium of havoc and rape. + +"Easy, boys," said the governor of the province, with an amused smile, +as he drove past the busy rioters at the head of a procession of +fashionable spectators. + +Loris-Melikoff was scarcely to be held responsible for these +occurrences. He had his own cares to worry him. The reins were fast +slipping out of his hands. Indeed, the attitude of governors, chiefs of +police, military officers, toward the spreading campaign against the +Jews was a matter of instinct. The "spirit of the moment," as it had +become customary to denote the epidemic of anti-Jewish feeling in +official circles, gleamed forth clear and unequivocal, and local +authorities acted upon it on their own hook. The real meaning of this +"spirit of the moment" lay in the idea that if there was a state of +general unrest threatening the safety of the throne, it was spending +itself on anti-Semitic ferocity; that if a storm-cloud was gathering +over the crown, an electric rod had been found in the Chosen People. + +The Czar took courage. + +Two days after the Kieff riot he promulgated a manifesto, framed by +Pobiedonostzeff, and proclaiming the continuance of unqualified +iron-handed absolutism. The "constitution" went into the archives. +Loris-Melikoff's public career had come to a close. General Ignatyeff, a +corrupt time-server, was appointed Minister of the Interior and a policy +of restriction and repression was adopted that brought back the days of +Nicholas I. + +Ignatyeff encouraged the "spirit of the moment" with all the means at +his command. One of the very first things he did was to order the +expulsion of thousands of Jews from Kieff. At the trial of some of the +rioters the state attorney unceremoniously acted as advocate for the +defendants. + +The effect of all this upon the public mind was a foregone conclusion. +The general inference was that anti-Jewish riots met with the +government's approval. The outrages passed from Kieff to neighbouring +cities; from there to Odessa; from Odessa to other sections of the +south. They were spreading throughout the region in which Miroslav is +located with the continuity of a regular crusade and with a uniformity +of detail that was eloquent of a common guiding force. + +It was a new phase of White Terrorism. + + * * * * * + +To Pavel the crusade against Clara's race was a source of mixed +encouragement and anxiety. + +"Hurrah, old fellow," he said to Godfather one morning. "It does look as +though the Russian people could kick, doesn't it?" + +"Yes, if they can attack Jewish usurers, I don't see why they could not +turn upon the government some day." + +"And, while they are at it, upon the land-plundering nobility, upon +fellows like you and me, eh?" He poked Urie in the ribs gleefully. + +In his conversations with Clara, however, the subject was never +broached, and this gave him a sense of guilt and uneasiness. He could +not help being aware that instead of usurers the chief target of attack +in every riot, without a single exception, were Jewish artisans, +labourers, teachers and the poorest tradesmen. And this, so far as Clara +was concerned, meant that the common people of Pavel's race, for whose +sake she was facing the solitary cell and the gallows, that these +Christian people were brutally assaulting and pillaging, reducing to +beggary and murdering poor honest, innocent people of her own blood, +Jews like her father, mother, sister, like herself. + +But this bare fact did not fit in with Nihilist theory. That golden halo +which had been painted about the common Christian people by the +ecstasies of the anti-serfdom movement of twenty years ago had not yet +faded. The Gentile masses were still deified by the Nihilists. Whatever +the peasant or workman of Slavic blood did was still sacred,--an +instinctive step in the direction of liberty and universal happiness. +The Russian masses were rioting; could there be a better indication of a +revolutionary awakening? And if the victims of these riots happened to +be Jews, then the Jews were evidently enemies of the people. + +That the crusade was part and parcel of the "white terror" of the throne +had not yet dawned upon the revolutionists. + +As to Clara, she was so completely abandoned to her grief over the death +of Sophia and the four men that so far the riots (no unheard-of thing in +the history of the Jews by any means) had made but a feeble appeal to +her imagination. Centuries seemed to divide her from her race and her +past. The outbreaks seemed to be taking place in some strange, distant +country. + +The execution of the five regicides had been described quite fully in +the _Official Messenger_ and the account had been copied in all other +newspapers. Clara kept the issue of the _Voice_ containing the report in +a book, and although she knew its salient passages by heart, she often +consulted the paper, now for this paragraph, now for that. There was a +sacred mystery in the letters in which the description was printed. + +"The five prisoners approached the priests almost at the same moment and +kissed the cross; after which they were taken by the hangmen each to his +or her rope." Clara beheld the ropes dangling and Sophia placed under +one of them, but her aching heart coveted more vividness. Her +imagination was making desperate efforts to reproduce the scene with the +tangibility of life. Each time she read how the hangman, dressed in a +red shirt, slipped the noose about Sophia's neck amid the roll of drums, +and how he wrenched the stool from under her feet, so that she plunged +with a jerk, and how the next instant her body hung motionless in the +air, each time Clara read this she was smitten with an overpowering pang +of pity and of helpless, aimless, heart-tearing affection. Sometimes she +would fancy Sophia and her four comrades rescued from the hangman's +hands a second before their execution, and carried triumphantly through +the streets by an army of victorious revolutionists, but the next moment +it would come back to her that this had not been the case, and then the +re-awakening to reality was even more painful than the original shock. +If a rescuing force were now ready to attack the hangman and the +thousand-bayoneted guard around him, it would be too late. Sophia was +dead, irretrievably dead; there was nobody to rescue. And Clara's heart +sank in despair. At such moments she would seek relief in those passages +of the report where the calmness of the condemned revolutionists was +depicted. "Jeliaboff whispered to his priest, fervently kissed the +cross, shook his hair and smiled. Fortitude did not forsake Jeliaboff, +Sophia and particularly Kibalchich (the man with the face of Christ) to +the very moment of donning the white-hooded death-gown"--these passages +gave Clara thrills of religious bliss. + +Pavel often talked to her about the execution, raved, cursed the +government; but Clara usually remained gloomily taciturn. The wound in +her soul was something too sacred to be talked about. Words seemed to +her like sacrilege. Their hearts understood each other well enough, why, +then, allow language to intrude upon their speechless communion? Some of +his effusions and outbursts jarred on her. On the other hand, her +silences made him restless. + +"You'll go insane if you keep this up," he once said, irascibly. + +"I don't care if I do," she answered. "Don't nag me, Pashenka, pray." + +"But the thing is becoming an _idee fixe_ in your mind, upon my word it +is. Can't you try and get back to your senses? What is death after all? +Absolute freedom from suffering, that's all. There is nothing to go +crazy over anyhow. There is nothing but a dear, a glorious, a beautiful +memory of them, and that will live as long as there is such a thing as +history in the world." + +She made no reply. She tried to picture Sophia free from suffering, but +this only sharpened her pain. Sophia not existing? The formula was even +more terrible than death. In reality, however, her atheism was powerless +to obliterate her visions. Sophia existed somewhere, only she was +solemnly remote, as though estranged from her. Clara could have almost +cried to her, imploring for recognition. + + * * * * * + +But this mood of hers could not last forever. Sooner or later she would +awaken to the full extent of the riots and to the fact that they were +raging in the vicinity of Miroslav, threatening the safety of her +nearest relatives. How would she take it then? The question intruded +upon Pavel's peace of mind again and again. + +For the present, however, she was taken up with her thoughts of Sophia, +Zachar or Hessia. Poor Hessia! They had robbed her of her baby, the +thugs, even as they had that woman of the "gay bard's" poem. "To lead a +married life under conditions such as ours is pure madness," she said to +herself. + +One afternoon, as she and her lover sat on the lounge, embracing and +kissing deliriously, she suddenly sprang to her feet, her cheeks +burning, kissed Pavel on his forehead and crossed over to the window. + +He shrugged his shoulders resentfully. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +A HUNTED PEOPLE. + + +It was Friday night at the Old Synagogue, but the cheery voices of +Sabbath Eve were not there. The air of having cast one's cares aside was +missing. Instead of a light-hearted turmoil of melody there was a hushed +murmur that betrayed suspense and timidity. Ever and anon some +worshipper would break off his hymn and strain his ears for a fancied +sound outside. The half hour spent away from home seemed many hours. +Very few people were present and none of these wore their Sabbath +clothes. Most of the other synagogues were closed altogether. Rabbi +Rachmiel, Clara's father, and several others were abandoned to an +ecstasy of devotion, but their subdued tones had in them the fervent +plea of Atonement Day, the tearful plea for an enrolment in the Book of +Life rather than the joyous solemnity that proclaims the advent of the +Higher Soul. The illumination in honour of Sabbath the Bride was a sorry +spectacle. The jumble of brass chandeliers hung unburnished and most of +them were empty. The synagogue had a troubled, a cowed look. It dared +not shine brightly, nor burst into song merrily lest it should irritate +the Gentiles. Here and there a man sat at his prayer book weeping +quietly. + +Members of the congregation who had not been on speaking terms for years +had made peace, as a matter of course. The spreading frenzy of the +Gentile population impressed them as an impersonal, elemental force. +They were clinging to each other with the taciturnity of ship-passengers +when the vessel shudders in the grip of danger. And not only did they +nestle to each other, but the entire present generation felt drawn to +all the former generations of their hunted race. The terrors of the +Inquisition, the massacres, the exiles, the humiliations, of which one +usually thought as something belonging to the province of books +exclusively, had suddenly become realities. The Bloody Spot, the site of +the present synagogue, where 800 Jews had been slain more than two +centuries ago, gleamed redder than ever in every mind. It was both +terrifying and a spiritual relief to beseech the souls of those eight +hundred martyrs to pray for their panic-stricken descendants. The +Russian Jews of 1881 felt themselves a living continuation of the entire +tearful history of their people. + +When the service was over, at last, the usual "Good Sabbath! Good +Sabbath!" always so full of festivity, was uttered in lugubrious +whispers, which really meant: "May God take pity upon us." Nor was there +a rush for the door. Quick, noisy movements were carefully avoided in +these days. + +Some of the worshippers had slowly filed out, when there was a stir, and +the crowd scrambled back with terrified faces. + +"Two Gentiles are coming, an army officer and a man in civilian +clothes," said some of those who came running back. + +The look of terror gave way to one of eager curiosity. The appearance of +two refined Gentiles was not the way an anti-Jewish riot was usually +ushered in. + +The "two Gentiles" turned out to be Dr. Lipnitzky and Vladimir +Vigdoroff, the one in his military uniform, and the other in a summer +suit of rough duck. When they were recognised they were greeted with +looks of affection and expectancy. The pious old-fashioned people who +had hitherto regarded Dr. Lipnitzky despairingly as more Gentile than +Jew, now thought of him tenderly as an advocate of Israel in the enemy's +camp. + +"Don't be so scared," the little doctor said with friendly acerbity, as +he paused in the centre of the synagogue. "We are Jews like +yourselves--the same kind of Jews all of us. We were passing by, so we +thought we would look in. We saw the synagogue was almost dark, though +it is still so early. The lights could not yet have gone out. It's +enough to break one's heart." He was choking with embarrassment and +emotion and his words produced a profound effect. People of his class +were not in the habit of attending divine service. The doctor's military +uniform, in fact, had never been seen in a synagogue before. But the +great point was that instead of Russian or Germanised Yiddish which he +habitually affected with uneducated Jews he was now speaking in the +plain, unembellished vernacular of the Ghetto. His listeners knew that +he was the son of a poor illiterate brick-maker, a plain "Yiddish Jew" +like themselves, yet they could scarcely trust their ears. They eyed his +shoulder-straps and sword-hilt, and it seemed incredible that the man +who wore these things was the man who was speaking this fluent, robust +Yiddish. His halo of inaccessible superiority had suddenly faded away. +Everybody warmed to him. + +"We'll be here to-morrow, we'll attend the service. And next Saturday, +too. Every Saturday. We're Jews." He could not go on. Some of his +listeners had tears in their eyes. Vladimir was biting his lips +nervously. + +"Still, it is not to see you cry that we have come to you," the doctor +resumed: but he was interrupted by Clara's father, who, advancing toward +him with glaring eyes, said, in a voice shrill with rage: + +"Now that Jewish blood is flowing in rivers you people come to do +penance! It is too late. It is the sins of men like yourselves that have +brought this punishment upon us. A Gentile Jew is even worse than a born +Gentile." He put up his fists to his temples and gasped: "Better become +Christians! Better become Christians!" + +The crowd had listened with bated breath, but at last somebody said: "Oh +shut up!" and similar shouts burst from forty or fifty other men. + +"We are all Jews, all brethren." + +"We'll settle old scores some other time." + +"A good heart is as good as piety." + +"Yes, but why don't you give the doctor a chance to speak?" Vladimir +stepped up to his uncle and pleaded with him. + +"Who is he?" said Dr. Lipnitzky with a smile. "Is he crazy?" And flying +into a passion, he was about to address Rabbi Rachmiel, but held himself +in check. A feeble old man of eighty with a very white beard was arguing +from the Talmud with Clara's father. + +"'The sinner who returns to God may stand upon ground upon which the +righteous are not allowed to stand,'" he quoted. "Again, 'Through +penance even one's sins are turned to good deeds.'" + +When Rabbi Rachmiel tried to reply, he was shouted down by the crowd. +They were yelling and gesticulating at him, when somebody mounted a +bench and fell to swishing his arms violently. "Hush!" he said in a +ferocious whisper. "Do you want to attract a mob?" His words had an +immediate effect, and then Rabbi Rachmiel said to his nephew, in much +milder but deeply grieved accents: + +"Do you know what the Talmud says? 'As long as you shall do the will of +God no strange people shall domineer over you, but if you don't do the +will of God, God will hand you over to a low people, and not merely to a +low people, but to the beasts of a low people.'" + +"All right, rabbi. This is not the time for argument," the doctor said, +kindly. "I have some important information for you all, for all of us. +There won't be any rioting in this town. You may be sure of it. That's +what my young friend and I have dropped in to tell you. I have seen the +governor"--his listeners pressed eagerly forward--"there will be plenty +of protection. The main point is that you should not tempt the Gentiles +to start a riot by showing them that you dread one. Don't hide, nor keep +your shops closed, as that would only whet one's appetite for mischief. +Do you understand what I say to you? This is the governor's opinion and +mine too. Everybody's." + +His auditors nodded vigorous and beaming assent. + +"He particularly warns the Jews not to undertake anything in the way of +self-defence. That would only arouse ill-feeling. Besides, it's against +the law. It could not be tolerated. Do you understand what I am saying +or do you not? Every precaution has been taken and there is really no +danger. Do you understand? There is no danger, and if you go about your +business and make no fuss it will be all right. I have spoken to several +officers of my regiment, too. Of course, you wouldn't have to look hard +to find a Jew-hater among them, but they spoke in a friendly way and +some of them are really good-natured fellows. They assured me that if +the troops were called out they would protect our people with all their +hearts." + +Every man in the group looked like a prisoner when the jury announces an +acquittal. Some, in a flutter of joy, hastened to carry the news to +their wives and children. The majority hung about the uniformed man, as +if ready to stay all night in his salutary presence, while one man even +ventured to say quite familiarly: "May you live long for this, doctor. +Why, you have put new souls into us." Whereupon he was told by another +man, through clenched teeth, that it was just like him to push himself +forward. + +Each man had his own tale of woe to tell, his own questions to ask. One +man, whose appearance and manner indicated that he was a tin-smith, had +a son at the gymnasium and a Gentile neighbour whose wife became green +with envy as often as she saw the Jewish boy in his handsome uniform. +She was much better off than the tin-smith yet her children were +receiving no education. + +"But why should you pay any attention to her?" Dr. Lipnitzky asked. + +"I don't, but my wife does. You know how women are, doctor. They take +everything hard. Last week the Gentile woman said aloud that it was +impudent on the part of Jews to dress their boys up in gymnasium +uniforms, as if they were noblemen, and that it was time Miroslav did +like all God-fearing towns and started a riot against the Jews. So my +wife is afraid to let the boy wear the uniform, and I think she is +right, too. Let the eyes of that Gentile woman creep out of their +sockets without looking at the child's uniform. It is vacation time +anyhow. But the boy, he cried all day and made a rumpus and said the +school authorities would punish him if he was seen in the street without +his uniform. Is it true, doctor? I am only an ignorant workman. What do +I know?" + +"Yes, it is true, and tell your wife not to mind that woman," answered +Dr. Lipnitzky, exchanging a woebegone look with Vladimir. + +"I have some goods lying at the railroad station for me," said a little +man with a puckered forehead. "It has been there about a month. 'Shall I +take it to the shop so that the rioters may have some more goods to +pillage?' I thought to myself. Would you really advise me to receive it, +doctor?" + +Dr. Lipnitzky took fire. "Do you want me to sign a guarantee for it?" he +said. "Do you want me to be responsible for the goods? You people are an +awful lot." + +"I was merely asking your advice, doctor," the man with the puckered +forehead answered, wretchedly. "You can't do much business these days, +anyhow. The best Gentiles won't pay. One has nothing but a book full of +debts. Besides, when the door flies open one's soul sinks. And when a +Gentile customer comes in you pray God that he may leave your shop as +soon as possible. For who knows but his visit may be a put-up job and +that all he wants is to pick a quarrel as a signal for a lot of other +rowdies to break in?" + +"And the Gentile sees your cowardice," the doctor cut in with an effect +of continuing the man's story, "and becomes arrogant, and this is the +way a riot is hatched." By degrees he resumed his superior manner and +his Germanised Yiddish, but his tone remained warm. + +"Arrogant!" said a tall, stooped, neatly-dressed jeweller. "You have +told us of some honest officers, doctor. Well, the other day an army +officer came into my place with a lady. He selected a ring for her, and +when I said it was forty rubles, he made no answer, but sent the lady +away with the ring, and then--you should have seen him break out at me. +I had put him to shame before a lady, he said. He was good for forty +times forty dollars, and all the Jews were a lot of cut-throats and +blood-suckers; that all we were good for was to ask officers to protect +us against rioters, and that my shop was made up of ill-gotten wealth +anyhow. I had never seen the man before and I insisted upon being paid; +but he made such a noise, I was afraid a crowd might gather. So I let +him go, but I sent out my salesman after him and he found out his name. +Then I went before his colonel" (the jeweller named the regiment), "but +what do you think the colonel said: 'He's a nice fellow. I shall never +believe it of him. And if he owes you some money, he'll pay you. At a +time like this you Jews oughtn't to press your claims too hard.' That's +what the colonel said." + +When a shabby cap-maker with thick bloodless lips told how he had let a +rough-looking Gentile leave his shop in a new cap without paying for it, +the doctor flew into a passion. + +"Why did you? Why did you?" he growled, stamping his feet, just as he +would when the relatives of a patient neglected to comply with his +orders. "It is just like you people. I would have you flayed for this." + +This only encouraged the cap-maker to go into the humour of the episode. + +"I was poking around the market place, with a high pile of caps on +either hand," he said, "when I saw a Gentile with a face like a carrot +covered full of warts. 'Aren't you ashamed to wear such a cap?' says I. +'Aren't you ashamed to spoil a handsome face like yours by that rusty, +horrid old thing on your head?'" + +"Oh, I would have you spanked," the little doctor snarled smilingly. +Whereupon several of the bystanders also smiled. + +"Hold on, doctor. I spanked myself. Well, the Gentile was not hard to +persuade, though when we got at my place he was rather hard to please. +He kept me plucking caps from the ceiling until the very pole in my hand +got tired of the job. At last he was suited. I thought he would ask how +much. He didn't. He did say something, but that was about anti-Jewish +riots. 'This cap will do,' he then said, 'Good-bye old man,' and made +for the door. And when I rushed after him and asked for the money he +turned on me and stuck the biggest fig[D] you ever saw into my face. +Since then when I see the good looks of a Gentile spoiled by a horrid +old cap I try not to take it to heart." + + [D] A sign of contempt and defiance consisting in the thumb being put + between the next two fingers. + +The doctor laughed. "And you let him go without paying?" he asked. + +"I should say I did. I was glad he didn't ask for the change." + +Another man confessed to having had an experience of this kind, a +customer having exacted from him change from a ruble which he had never +paid him. + +"He was a tough looking customer, and he made a rumpus, so I thought to +myself, 'Is this the first time I have been out of some cash? Let him go +hang himself.' And the scoundrel, he gave me a laugh, called me accursed +Jew into the bargain and went his way." + +"Did you ask him to call again?" the cap-maker demanded, and noticing +Clara's father by his side, he added: "This is not the way Rabbi +Rachmiel's wife does business, is it? She would make him pay her the +dollar and the change, too." + +The doctor burst into laughter, the others echoing it noisily. Only +Vladimir's face wore a look of restless gravity. It was the restlessness +of a man who is trying to nerve himself up to a first public speech. His +heart was full of something which he was aching to say to these people, +to unburden himself of, but his courage failed him to take the word. +Presently a man too timid to seek information in the centre of the +assembly addressed a whispered inquiry to Vladimir and Vladimir's answer +attracted the attention of two or three bystanders. Gradually a little +colony branched off from the main body. He was telling them what he knew +from the newspapers about the latest anti-Jewish outbreaks in various +towns; and speaking in a very low voice and in the simplest +conversational accents, he gradually passed to what weighed on his +heart. He knew Yiddish very well indeed, yet he had considerable +difficulty in speaking it, his chief impediment lying in his inability +to render the cultured language in which he thought into primitive +speech. His Yiddish was full of Russian and German therefore, but some +of his listeners understood it all, while the rest missed but an +occasional phrase. + +"People like myself--those who have studied at the gymnasia and +universities"--he went on in a brooding, plaintive undertone, "feel the +misery of it all the more keenly because we have been foolish enough to +imagine ourselves Russians, and to keep aloof from our own people. Many +of us feel like apologising to every poor suffering Jew in Russia, to +beg his forgiveness, to implore him to take us back. We were ashamed to +speak Yiddish. We thought we were Russians. We speak the language of +the Gentiles, and we love it so dearly; we have adopted their ways and +customs; we love their literature; everything Russian is so dear to us; +why should it not be? Is not this our birthplace? But the more we love +it, the more we try to be like Russians, the more they hate us. My +uncle, Rabbi Rachmiel, says it is too late to do penance. Well, I do +feel like a man who comes to confess his sins and to do penance. It is +the blood and the tears of our brothers and sisters that are calling to +us to return to our people. And now we see how vain our efforts are to +be Russians. There was a great Jew whose name was Heinrich Heine." (Two +of the men manifested their acquaintance with the name by a nod.) "He +was a great writer of poetry. So he once wrote about his mother--how he +had abandoned her and sought the love of other women. But he failed to +find love anywhere, until ultimately he came to the conclusion that the +only woman in whom he was sure of love was his own dear mother. This is +the way I feel now. I scarcely ever saw the inside of a synagogue +before, but now I, like the doctor, belong here. It is not a question of +religion. I am not religious and cannot be. But I am a Jew and we all +belong together. And when a synagogue happens to stand on a site like +this----" + +He broke off in the middle of the sentence. His allusion to the massacre +of two centuries before inspired him with an appalling sense of the +continuity of Jewish suffering. The others stood about gazing solemnly +at him, until the scholarly old man of eighty with the very white beard +broke silence. He raised his veined aged little hands over Vladimir's +head and said in a nervous treble: + +"May God bless you, my son. That's all I have to say." + +Vladimir was literally electrified by his words. + +"But what do they want of us?" asked a man with a blueish complexion. +"You say they are good-natured. Do you call it good-natured when one +acts like a wild beast, bathing in the blood of innocent people?" + +"Well, this is the Gentile way of being good-natured," somebody put in, +with a sneer, before Vladimir had time to answer. + +"They have been turned into savages," Vigdoroff then said. He maintained +the low, mournful voice, though he now put a didactic tone into it. +"They are blind, ignorant people. They are easily made a catspaw of." + +The man with the blueish complexion interrupted him. He spoke of Gentile +cruelty, of the Inquisition, the Crusades, massacres, and almost with +tears of rage in his eyes he defied Vladimir to tell him that Jews were +capable of any such brutalities. Vladimir said no, Jews were not capable +of any bloodshed, and went on defending the Russian people. The man with +the sneer was beginning to annoy him. He was an insignificant looking +fellow with very thin lips and a very thin flat blond beard. Even when +his face was grave it had a sneering effect. He said very little. Only +occasionally he would utter a word or two of which nobody else took +notice. Yet it was chiefly to him that Vladimir was addressing himself. +But the assembly was soon broken up. Rabbi Rachmiel's wife came in at +the head of several other women who were not afraid to walk through the +streets after sundown in these days. They had grown uneasy about their +husbands' delay. + +Vladimir saluted his aunt warmly. They exchanged a few words, but +nothing was said of Clara. An "illegal" person like her could not be +mentioned in public. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +A PAPER FROM THE CZAR. + + +A large crowd of peasants, in tall straw hats, many of them with their +whips in their hands, congregated in front of the bailiff's office at +Zorki. It was a sultry afternoon in August. A single shirt of coarse +white linen and a pair of trousers of the same material were all the +clothes the men wore. The trousers were very wide and baggy but drawn +tight at the bottom by means of strings, so that they dropped at the +ankles blouse-fashion, and the loose-fitting shirt fell over the +trousers with a similar effect. Most of the shirts were embroidered in +red and blue. Sometimes, as a result of special rivalry among the young +women, one village will affect gaudier embroidery and more of it than +its neighbours. This could be seen now at one corner of the crowd where +a group of peasants, all from the same place, defined itself by the +flaming red on the upper part of their sleeves. There were women, too, +in the crowd, the girls in wreaths of artificial flowers and all of them +in ribbons and coral beads, though some of them were barefoot. + +A strong smell of primitive toil emanated from their bodies; primitive +ideas and primitive interests looked out of their eyes. The northern +moujik--the Great, or "real," Russian--who speaks the language of +Turgeneff and Tolstoy, has less poetry than the Little-Russian, but he +also has less cunning and more abandon. To be sure, the cunning of the +Zorki peasant is as primitive as his whole mind. Very few men in the +crowd now standing in front of the bailiff's office could have managed +to add such two numbers as six and nineteen, or to subtract the weight +of an empty pail from the weight of a pail of honey. Their book-keeping +consists of notches on the door-jamb, and their armour in the battle of +life is a cast-iron distrustfulness. + +At last the bailiff made his appearance, adjusted the straps of his +sword across his breast, and asked what they wanted. A tall old fellow +with a drooping steel-grey moustache came out of the crowd, hat in hand, +and bowed deeply, as he said: + +"It's like this, your nobleness. We wish to know when that paper from +the Czar about the Jews will be read to us?" + +"What paper from the Czar?" the bailiff asked. "What are you talking +about?" He was a dry-boned man, but ruddy-faced and with very narrow +almond-shaped eyes. As he now looked at the crowd through the sharp +afternoon glare his eyes glistened like two tiny strips of burnished +metal. + +"Your nobleness need not be told what paper. It's about beating the Jews +and taking away their goods." + +The scene was being watched by several Jews, plucky fellows who had come +in the interests of their people at the risk of being the first victims +of mob fury. Among these was Yossl, Makar's father, at once the most +intellectual and strongest looking man in the delegation. In the +meantime the other Jews, stupefied and sick with fear, had closed their +shops and dwellings and were hiding in cellars and in garrets, in the +ruins of an old church and in the woods. Two women gave birth to +stillborn children during the commotion, one of these at the bedside of +her little boy who was too sick to be moved. + +"You are a fool," the bailiff said to the spokesman, with a smile, as he +raised his narrow eyes in quest of some Gentile with whom he might share +the fun. "You are a lot of fools. Better go home. There is no such paper +in the world. Whoever told you there was?" + +"Why, everybody says so. In most places they finished the job long ago. +Only we are a lot of slow coaches, people say. And then, when the higher +authorities find out about it, who will be fined or put in jail? We, +poor peasants. As if we did not have troubles enough as it is." + +"What will you be put in jail for?" asked the bailiff, chuckling to +himself. + +Here a younger peasant whispered in the spokesman's ear not to let +himself be bamboozled. + +Speaking with unwonted boldness, born of the conviction that the bailiff +was suppressing a document of the Czar, the tall fellow said: + +"You can't fool us, your nobleness. We are only peasants, but what we +know we know." And he went on to enumerate villages where, according to +rumour, the paper had already been read and acted upon. "Although +uneducated, yet we are not such fools as your nobleness takes us for. If +it is a ukase direct from the Czar we aren't going to take chances, sir. +Not we, sir. Better read it to us and let's be done with it. We have no +time to waste, sir." + +One of the Jews was going to make a suggestion, but he was shouted down +and waved aside. + +The bailiff made a gesture of amused despair and turned to go back, when +the peasants stepped forward, and chattering excitedly, they gave him +to understand that they would not let him go until he had shown them the +imperial ukase. The purport of their remonstrance was to the effect that +the Jews had bribed him to suppress the document. The bailiff took it +all good-naturedly. In his heart of hearts he was looking forward to the +sport of an anti-Jewish outbreak with delight; but the noise brought the +local priest upon the scene--a kindly elderly man with the face of a +whimpering peasant girl. He was a victim of official injustice himself +and he implored the crowd to listen to reason. His face, at once comic +and piteous, was the main cause of his failures. He was a well-educated +priest, yet he was kept in this obscure town. His sacerdotal locks, +meant to be long and silken, hung in stiff, wretched little clumps. +Nevertheless, as he now stood in his purple broad-sleeved gown, +appealing to the multitude of white figures, his cross sparkling in the +sun, the spectacle was like a scene of the early days of Christianity. + +"It is a great sin to circulate wicked falsehoods like that and it is +just as much of a sin to credit them," he said in a pained heartfelt +voice. "Ours is a good Czar. He does not command his children to do +violence to human beings." + +"Oh, well, little father," one peasant broke in. "You don't seem to have +heard of it. That's all. If the Czar has not ordered it, then why do +they beat the Jews everywhere else and the police and soldiers stand by +and see to it that they do the work well?" + +The bailiff burst into a horse-laugh and slapped his knees violently. +The priest's face bore a look of despair. + +"Can it be that you believe such foolishness?" he said. + +"What do we know? We are only common people. All we do know is that +whatever happens it is our skin that is peeled off. If we can't get the +paper we'll do our duty without it." + +"That's it, without it!" the others chimed in in excited chorus. + +Further parleying made it clear that many of them had no inclination to +do any personal harm to the Jews or to their property. They were on +friendly terms with their Jewish neighbours, and all they wanted was to +get rid of a disagreeable duty. The rest, about half of the entire +crowd, had had their heads turned with stories of lakes of vodka and +fabulous piles of loot, but even these proved susceptible to argument. + +"Here," Yossl shouted at the top of his voice and with great fervour. "I +have a scheme, and what will you lose by it if you hear me out? If you +don't like it, I'll take it back and it won't cost you a cent." The +intensity of his manner took them by storm. He was allowed to finish. +"My scheme amounts to this: The Jews will sign a paper taking upon +themselves all responsibility for your failure to smash their shops and +houses, so that if the authorities call you to account for violating the +imperial ukase, we will answer and you will come out clear." + +First there was perplexed stillness, then a murmur of distrust, and +finally a tumult of rejection. + +"Crafty Jew! There must be some trick in it!" they yelled sneeringly. + +The priest was wiping the perspiration from his forehead. Finally he +shouted huskily: + +"Very well, I'll sign such a paper." + +After some more arguing, the plan, in its amended form, was adopted. The +older men flaunted their experience by insisting upon a formal +"certificate" bearing the priest's official seal and signature, so that +when the Czar's inspectors arrived the peasants might have something +tangible to present. When all this had been complied with, there was +some portentous talk about the Jews sprinkling the bargain with vodka; +but having followed the "little father's" advice in the main point the +peasants were now in a yielding mood toward him generally, and the vodka +shops being closed, he had no difficulty in getting them to go home +sober. + +A large number of them had to cross the river. To occupy their minds +while they were waiting for the ferry--a small antediluvian affair which +could only accommodate about one-fifth of the crowd at a time--the +priest asked them for a song. And then the quiet evening air resounded +with those pensive, soulful strains which for depth of melancholy have +scarcely an equal in the entire range of folk-music. Thus the men who +might now have been frenzied with the work of pillage, devastation and, +perhaps, murder, stood transfixed with the poetry of anguish and pity. +Race distinctions and ukases--how alien and unintelligible these things +were to the world in which their souls dwelt at this minute! The glint +of the water grew darker every second. The men on the ferry continued +their singing. Then somebody on the other side joined in and the melody +spread in all directions. The fresh ringing treble of a peasant girl, +peculiarly doleful in its high notes, came from across the water. A +choir of invisible choirs, scattered along both banks, sang to the night +of the sadness of human existence. + +The Jews returned from their hiding-places, but very few of them went to +bed that night. The tragedy in many houses was intensified by the +circumstance that the heads of these families were absent from the town, +having gone to the Good Jew for prayer and advice as to the spreading +calamity. Weinstein's spacious rooms were full of neighbours and their +families. The presence of the man whom one had been accustomed to regard +as a monument of worldly power had a special attraction for the poorer +Pietists this evening. Besides, one dreaded the hallucinations of +solitude and in Weinstein's house one was sure to find company. Most of +them sat in the large prayer room, keeping close to each other, +conversing in subdued, melancholy voices, comfortable in the community +of their woe, as though content to remain in this huddle until the end +of time. Yossl was curling his black side-locks morosely. The other +people in the room importuned him for details of the scene in front of +the bailiff's office, but he was not in the mood for speaking. Weinstein +was snapping his fingers at his own florid neck, as he walked backward +and forward. Presently Maria, his Gentile servant, who spoke good +Yiddish, addressed him, with sad, sympathetic mien: + +"Master dear," she said in Yiddish. "Will you let me break a couple of +windows?" + +He did not understand. + +"You see," she explained bursting into tears. "If they get at me because +I did not smash things in your house, I'll be able to swear that I did." +For an instant he stood surveying her, then, in a spasm of rage and +misery, he shrieked out: + +"Why, certainly! Go ahead! Break, smash, everything you set your eye on. +You are the princess, we are only Jews. Go smash the whole house." And +in his frenzy he went breaking windows and chairs, shrieking as he did +so: + +"Here! Look and let your heart rejoice." + +"Madman," Yossl said calmly, "you'll alarm the town. They'll think it's +a riot and the Gentiles will join in." + +Weinstein sat down pale and panting. "Go and tell your people to come +and delight in the sight of a Jew's broken windows," he said to the +Gentile woman. + +She put her hands to her face and left the room sobbing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THE DEFENCE COMMITTEE. + + +The little man who played the part of errand boy at the cheese shop and +who was arrested before the work on the mine was well advanced had +ultimately turned state's evidence. Among the revolutionists he betrayed +was Pavel, but the prince was known to him under a false name. Still, +the information furnished by his man, added to some addresses found on +other captured Nihilists, led to a series of new arrests. The ranks of +the Will of the People were being rapidly decimated. Grisha, the +dynamiter, and several other members of the innermost circle were seized +shortly after the killing of the Czar. The few surviving leaders +withdrew to the provinces, in some cases only immediately to fall into +the hands of the police there. Thus in April, after a Jewish student +girl was arrested in Kieff, the "trap" at her lodgings caught a woman +and a man who proved to be Baska, the "wife" of the "cheesemonger" +couple, and her real husband, "the German." Urie (the "cheesemonger"), +Makar and several other active revolutionists were in Moscow. + +One late afternoon Clara was slowly pacing the painted floor of her +room, her hands clasped behind her, while her lover lay on the lounge, +watching her through the gathering dusk. + +"St. Petersburg is too hot now," he said, breaking a long silence. +"Everybody is going away." + +"There is really no use staying here just at present," she assented, +sadly, without pausing. + +They grew silent again. The gloom of the little parlour was thickening +so rapidly that it seemed as though the outline of Clara's face, as she +walked back and forth, became vaguer every time she turned in Pavel's +direction. + +Presently, with a burst of amorous tenderness, he got up, saying: + +"Clanya! Let us go for a rest somewhere. You know you need it." + +"You need it even more than I do, poor boy," she replied, stepping up +close to him. "I do wish you would go home for a month or two--or +somewhere else. As to myself, I should first like to see my parents. The +riots may strike Miroslav at any moment. If any harm came to them, I +should never forgive myself. I must get them away from there. That's all +I can think of." There was an obvious blank in her words. She left +something unsaid, and the consciousness of it made him uncomfortable. + +"But that's easily arranged," he urged. "You can send them money and +invite them to some safe place." + +"That's what I have been thinking of. I am so restless I wish I could +start to-morrow. It couldn't be arranged too soon. There are persistent +rumors that a riot is coming there. I shan't be gone long, dearest." + +He had it at the tip of his tongue to force a discussion of their +party's attitude toward the riots and to have it out once for all. In +his imagined debates with her on the subject he had often exclaimed: "I +happen to belong to a class of land-robbers and profligates; now, +suppose the revolution breaks out and my class is attacked by the +people, will that affect me? A nice revolutionist I should be if it +did!" This and other arguments were all ready; what he lacked, however, +was the courage to bring up the topic. As to her promise to marry him +when the great conspiracy was out of the way, her redeeming it now, +while she was so tremulously absorbed in the question of her parents' +safety, could not be thought of. + +He gathered her to him and kissed her, at once sympathetically and +appealingly. + +"Go home, Pasha," she besought. "But not to Miroslav. You won't rest +there. Go to some of your mother's country places, or, perhaps some +other place would be safer for you. Go and take good care of yourself. +It would be too terrible if I found you arrested when I got back." + +"Will you marry me then?" he asked, impersonating a pampered child. + +She nodded, in the same playful spirit, and again her reticence brought +disquiet to his heart. "Something tells me she'll never be mine," he +thought with a sigh. + + * * * * * + +While the government was actively fomenting the riots, making an +electric rod of the Jews, the Nihilists persisted in mistaking them for +revolutionary kindling wood. While the "Chronicle of Arrests" in the +revolutionary organ included a large number of Jewish names, several of +them of persons conspicuous in the movement and noted for their pluck, +another page of the same issue contained a letter from the riot-ridden +district that was strongly flavoured with anti-Semitism. Moreover, a +proclamation, addressed to the peasantry, was printed on an +"underground" press, naming the Czar, the landlords and the Jews as +enemies of the people. This proclamation met with a storm of +disapproval, however, on the part of Gentiles and Jews alike, and was +withdrawn from circulation. Chaos reigned in the minds of the Nihilists. +Their party was disorganised, their thinkers for the most part buried, +dead or alive, the editorial management of their publications in the +hands of the weakest man on the Executive Committee, of one who several +years later sent, from Paris, a most servile petition to the Czar, +abjuring his former views and begging permission to return home as an +advocate of unqualified absolutism and panslavism. + +The attitude of the Nihilists toward the Jewish population in general +was thus anything but sympathetic; and yet, so far as the higher strata +of the movement were concerned, the personal relations between Jew and +Gentile were not affected by this circumstance in the slightest degree. +The feeling of intimate comradeship and mutual devotion between the two +elements was left unmarred, as if one's views on the Jewish question +were purely a matter of abstract reasoning without any bearing on the +Jew of flesh and blood one happened to know. + +More than this, in their blind theorising according to preconceived +formulas, most of the active Jewish Nihilists shut their eyes to the +actual state of things and joined their Gentile comrades in applauding +the riots as an encouraging sign of the times, as "a popular +revolutionary protest." + +Pavel longed to discuss the riots with Makar. When he saw him, however, +he found him far more interested in the "new revolutionary program" upon +which he was engaged than in the anti-Semitic crusade. + +"As if it was the first time Jewish blood had been shed," he said, +answering a question from Pavel, half-heartedly. "The entire history of +the Jews is one continuous riot. Indeed, the present outbreaks are a +mere flea-bite to what they have undergone before. So, what has +happened to make one revise one's views on the movement? One might as +well stay away from the _Will of the People_ because, forsooth, Jews +were burned by Gentiles in the 15th century. Nonsense." + +"Clara doesn't seem to take it quite so easy," Pavel thought to himself. + +"Clara has gone to meet her parents," he said, thirsting to talk of her. + +"Has she? There may be a riot in Miroslav at any time. I wonder how +Zorki is getting along. But then my father will be able to take care of +himself,--and of Miriam, too," he added, lukewarmly. The only thing of +which he could have spoken with enthusiasm in these days was his +program. + +Pavel came away hankering for more conversation about his fiancee and +about the riots. Instead of seeking rest and safety, as he had promised +Clara to do, he coveted a new sort of excitement and danger. He felt +that there was something wrong about that crusade, and he had a +sportsmanlike craving to see it for himself. Lacking the courage to +criticise his party, he accused himself of allowing his revolutionary +convictions to be affected by the interests of his love; yet he +continued to pray in his heart that the Jews of Miroslav, at least, +might be spared. He read all he found in the newspapers about the +atrocities, and on taking up a paper he would tremble lest it should +contain news of a riot in his birthplace. + +When he read of the Miroslav panic he went there at once. + +"If it's really a riot she'll never come back to me," he brooded, +wretchedly. + + * * * * * + +The rumours of an impending catastrophe were assuming definite outline +in Miroslav. A date was mentioned and tall Great-Russians in red +shirts--specialists at the business--were said to have been seen about +town. Great-Russia is and has always been strictly without the pale of +Jewish settlement, it being one of the characteristic features of the +anti-Semitic riots of the period that their leaders were imported from +the rabble in those districts in which very few people had an idea what +a Jew looked like. + +The Jews of Miroslav sent a snug bribe to Pavel's uncle, but their agent +came back with the money. The governor had commissioned him to assure +them that everything would be done to make an outbreak impossible, but +"gratitude" he would not accept. The Jews took alarm. "If he doesn't eat +honey," they said, in the phrase of a current proverb, "then it looks +bad indeed." When a deputation of representative men called on him he +lost his temper. + +"You Jews are too intense, that's what's the trouble with you," he said, +blinking his eyes. "I have let you know twice that there is no cause for +alarm, yet it seems that it is not enough for you." When he had softened +down he talked quite at length, although in a haughty tone of authority +and immeasurable aloofness, of the steps he had taken. The main point +was that the Jews should not tempt people to lawlessness by betraying +anxiety. He delivered quite a lecture on the point. The deputation came +away greatly encouraged. They knew of the extensive business relations +which the managers of his estates had with Jewish merchants, and they +argued, among themselves, that a riot, involving as it usually did the +wholesale destruction of Jewish property and a general demoralisation of +business, could not but entail serious financial losses upon himself. +This was in keeping with declarations made by the boards of trade at +Moscow, Warsaw and Kharkoff, the three chief centres of Russian +commerce, regarding the anti-Jewish crusade. These bodies had pointed +out the importance of the Jews of the south as the prime movers of local +industry, as almost the exclusive connecting link between the south of +Russia and the world markets of Germany and England; accordingly, they +had protested against the anti-Semitic campaign as a source of ruin to +the economic interests of the whole empire. All this the members of the +deputation were aware of, so they saw no reason to doubt the sincerity +of the governor's pledges. His advice not to put the thought of a riot +in the popular mind by a demonstration of timidity produced a strong +impression. + +The upshot was that the Jews of Miroslav were afraid to be afraid. A +singular mood took hold of them. Everybody made an effort to act upon +the presumption that Miroslav was immune, that it was in an exceptional +position, and at the same time everyone read suspense and mortal fear in +the eyes of everyone else. It was like walking in one's stocking feet +with a spectacular effect of making a noise. Jewish women still avoided +the proximity of Christian men, and a Jewish face that did not look +Jewish was still eyed enviously as a shield against violence. The only +tangible manifestation of the spirit advocated by the governor was a +slight lengthening of business hours. Since the beginning of the panic +Jewish tradesmen had been closing their shops before it was quite +dark--three or four hours earlier than usual. Now they compromised on +keeping them open until the street lamps were lit. Nevertheless those of +them who depended on Christian trade continued to treat their customers +with a gentleness and a fawning attention that had nothing to do with +the ordinary blandishments of the counter. Inveterate rogues among +Jewish tradesmen became honest men. On the other hand a most respectable +Gentile often yielded to temptation that amounted to downright robbery, +while the license of "shady Christian characters" was asserting itself +more portentously every day. + +A queer story came from one of the suburbs. When three Gentiles wearing +red shirts entered an out-of-the-way house to inquire the road, their +appearance frightened the two Jewish women they found there out of the +place, whereupon one of these, in a frenzy of terror, jumped into a well +and was drowned. Meanwhile the three strangers, finding themselves +alone, stripped the house of its valuables--a finale which struck the +fancy of a notorious thief and his gang, who then put on red shirts and +made a practice of plundering Jewish houses after scaring away their +occupants. The thief was known as Petroucha Sivoucha, which, foregoing +the rhyme, may be rendered as Cheap Vodka Pete. When he was arrested at +last he said, impersonating a simple-minded peasant: + +"But it was only Jewish stuff and everybody says a Gentile is welcome to +it nowadays, that such is the will of our little father, the Czar." + +The riots continued to spread, and while they did, General Ignatyeff, +the new Minister of the Interior, announced measure after measure +against the Jews. In a country where every official is perpetually +craning his neck toward the capital, it was only natural that an +attitude like this on the part of the Minister of the Interior should +create an atmosphere of anti-Semitic partiality amid which justice to +the Jew became impossible. Ignatyeff knew of the widespread rumour as to +the existence of an imperial ukase ordering the peasantry to plunder +and commit violence upon the Jews. Apart from his official sources of +information, the newspapers were full of instances showing the effect of +that rumour, yet he did nothing to stop it or to disabuse the minds of +the peasantry in that connection. This was interpreted by the officials +as a sign that the rumour was not meant to be stopped, and it was not. + +Governor Boulatoff's encouraging answers to the Jews of his province +brought to Miroslav hundreds of people from other towns. Some of these +were victims of former atrocities, left without shelter in their native +places; others had not yet been through an anti-Semitic outbreak, but +dreaded one. + +While people from other provinces were flocking to Miroslav in quest of +safety the leading Miroslav families were quietly sending their wives +and children abroad and taking their valuables to the government bank. +The offices of Dr. Lipnitzky and of Sender the Arbitrator, Vladimir's +father, were visited by scores of panic-stricken people daily. + +"The rich people put their money and their plate in the bank," said a +teamster's wife to Vladimir and his father, "but what shall we do with +our traps?" + +"Don't worry, my dear woman, there will be no riot in Miroslav," the +Arbitrator reassured her. + +"It's all very well to say don't worry," the woman retorted sharply. +"You people can afford to say it, because your house is safe. But if +they kill my husband's horse and destroy his truck, we'll have to go +begging. It did not come easy, I can assure you." She burst into tears. +"The years that it has taken to save it all up, the pinching, the +scrimping--all in order that a thousand ghosts might have something to +grab. And what are we going to do with ourselves? Where shall we hide? +As to my husband and myself, well, all they can do is to kill us, but +how about the children?" And again she burst into sobs. + +When an old woman who had two unmarried daughters, "both as handsome as +a tree," described her despair concerning them, Vladimir's mother +invited the girls to stay with her until the storm was over. And then +scores of other mothers begged her, with heart-breaking lamentations and +kisses, to take pity on their daughters also; which she could not do for +sheer lack of room. + +The Vigdoroffs felt reasonably safe because Rasgadayeff, their Gentile +landlord and friend, was sure to keep the marauders away. Indeed, the +example of all previous outbreaks had shown that in most cases it was +enough for any Gentile to tell the rioters that he was the proprietor of +the house and that there were no Jews on his premises for them to pass +cordially on, and Rasgadayeff was one of the conspicuous and popular +figures in the Gentile community of the town. It is true that he was +looking forward to an anti-Semitic upheaval with joy himself, but his +liking for the Vigdoroffs was sincere. + +Vladimir's father went about among his depositors asking to be relieved +of their money, jewelry or silver spoons. They refused to accept it. +Finally he moved his iron safe to Rasgadayeff's apartment. + +Vladimir was in despair. He felt it quite likely that the panic should +be father to a catastrophe, as the governor had said. Once when he spoke +in this strain at his father's table, his mother remarked with light +irony: + +"Look at the brave man. Look at the Cossack of straw." + +The retort struck cruelly home. He knew that his heart grew faint every +time the anti-Semitic mobs pictured themselves vividly in his brain, +although often, indeed, he had a queer feeling as if it would be +disappointing to see Miroslav left out of the list of towns that were +sharing in the tragic notoriety of the year, and visioned himself going +through the experiences of a most brutal outbreak without facing its +dangers. The tragedy of his people filled his heart. He watched them in +their terror, in their misery, in their clinging despairing love of +their children; he studied their frightened look, their shrinking, +tremulous attitudes. Every Jewish woman he met struck him as a hunted +bird, on the alert for the faintest sound, trembling over the fate of +her nest. He saw many of them packing their things to flee, they did not +know whither. Indeed, the whole historical life of his race seemed to +have been spent in packing, in moving, in fleeing without knowing +whither. "Oh, my poor, my unhappy people!" Vladimir said to himself, in +a spasm of agony, yet with a glow of pleasure in calling them his +people. In his heart of hearts he knew that while he told everybody to +take courage his own mind was barren of conviction as to what was the +best thing to do. He felt crushed. He lost his head. + +One day, as Vladimir walked along the street, his attention was arrested +by a rough-looking young man who was circling round him, and +scrutinising him now on this side, now on that. He felt annoyed. He was +not sure that the young man was a Jew, and as he asked him sternly, +"What are you looking at?" he was conscious of a little qualm of +timidity. + +"Excuse me, sir," the other answered, in Yiddish. "I saw you at the +synagogue that Friday night. Do you remember?" + +They paused. The young man had the manner of a Jewish horse-driver or +blacksmith. He was robust and broad-shouldered with small very sparse +teeth, somewhat bow-legged and somewhat cross-eyed. His coat was +literally in tatters and gave off a strong smell of herring. + +"Well?" asked Vladimir. + +"I have been wanting to see you, sir, only I have been too bashful." He +gave a smile, his tongue showing between his sparse teeth. + +Vigdoroff rather liked his manner and invited him to his father's house. +On their way thither the young man said that his name was Zelig and that +he was a cooper by trade, making a specialty of herring barrels. When +they found themselves alone in Vladimir's room, Zelig grew still more +bashful, and after surveying the room, to make sure that they were not +overheard, he said: + +"I want to belong to the committee." + +"What committee?" + +"You need not be on the lookout with me, sir; I am no babbler." + +It appeared that there was a defence committee in town, with educated +young men at the head, and that in case of a riot it was expected to +fight "to the last drop of a fellow's blood," as Zelig phrased it. That +there should be such a thing in Miroslav without him being so much as +aware of its existence hurt Vladimir keenly. + +"I don't know anything about it," he said, blankly. + +"Don't you really?" said Zelig. "I was sure you were in it and that you +could get me in, too. Why, everybody knows about it. Only the committee +is strict, because if the police hears of it, they'll all be arrested. +It's against the law." As he offered him more detail of the matter he +became patronisingly enthusiastic and confided to him the names of Elkin +and of several university students now on their vacation as the +organisers and leaders of the movement. Vladimir knew these young men +and his pain became sharper still. + +"But what good will it do?" he said, drily. "It will only lead to +trouble." + +"Trouble! The idea of an educated man speaking like that! Can there be +more trouble than the Jews are in now? I don't see why we should sell +ourselves so cheap. Once we are going to be licked, why act like a lot +of sticks? Let us pay them for their bother at least. Come what may, +when they attack us, let us go to work and crack their skulls at +least--with lumps of iron, clubs or even pistols. Let us fondle them so +that a ghost may get into every bone of theirs." His words were +accompanied with mighty swings of his shoulders and arms and these +gesticulations of his had a peculiar effect on Vladimir. They stirred +his blood, they hypnotised him. "What is the danger? They'll kill us? +Let them. As if the life of a Jew were worth living! Besides, aren't +they killing and maiming us anyhow?" + +"But look here," Vigdoroff said seriously. "The governor has promised us +protection and he is perfectly sincere about it. Now if he learns that +our people take the law in their own hands, it may do us great harm. It +is a very serious matter." + +"Spit upon him, sir! I'm an uneducated man, but the governor--a ghost +into his father's father!--may all he wishes the Jews befall his own +head." + +"That's all true enough, but now he has promised us protection, and an +organisation of that kind is against the law and may lead to trouble," +Vigdoroff said with perfunctory irritation. + +"And an organisation of rioters is not against the law? And robbing and +killing innocent people is not against the law? Long life to you, sir; +you're so wise, so educated and yet you are speaking like a baby. Look +here, sir! If the governor--a plague take him--is as good as his word, +and he does not allow the riot to get started, well and good. Then we'll +call the bargain off. But suppose he proves to be neither better nor +worse than all governors?" + +Zelig knew of a number of other Jewish artisans who were anxious to join +the "committee," and he urged Vigdoroff to visit their gathering and to +give them a talk like the one Zelig had heard from him at the Synagogue +on that Friday night. "Oh, that was sweet as sugar," he said, kissing +two of his dirty fingers. "You see, when it comes to striking a +scoundrel's snout such a blow as will set his eyes raining sparks, we +want no help. That we can manage ourselves, but we are only common +people, and when a smart man like you says a couple of words, they +simply go melting in a fellow's bones." + +"But I don't know anything about the 'committee.'" + +Zelig laughed familiarly. "Sender-the-Arbitrator's son doesn't know! If +you only had the desire, you could belong to it yourself and introduce +us fellows, too." + +"Very well. I'll consider it. And I should advise you men to do the +same." + +"Consider it! We are only plain uneducated people, but we aren't going +to do any considering. I have a sister, sir, and if a Gentile lays a +finger on her he'll be a dead man, I can tell you that. Jewish blood is +being spilled by the bucket and here you are talking of 'considering.'" +He insisted that Vladimir should attend the meeting of his informal +society, and Vladimir, completely in his power, promised to do so. + + * * * * * + +That evening, in a spacious barn, half of which was crowded with barrels +of herring, Vladimir found Zelig and some fifteen chums of his. Zelig +was playing with a huge iron key. He was employed here and the meeting +was held by his employer's permission. For more than nine persons to +assemble without a police permit is a crime; so it gave Vigdoroff +satisfaction to reflect that he was now incurring risks similar to those +incurred by Clara and her friends. The gathering seemed to be made up of +mechanics and labourers exclusively. One of the men present was the +sneering fellow whom Vigdoroff had seen at the synagogue. Of the others +Vladimir's attention was attracted by two big burly young butchers with +dried-up blood about their finger-nails, a chimney-sweep, who looked +like a jet-black negro, with white teeth and red lips, and three men +with medals from the late war which they apparently expected to act as +an amulet against Gentile rowdies. The chimney-sweep sat apart, cracking +sunflower seeds. Now and again he made as though to throw his sooty arms +round somebody's neck and then burst into laughter over his own joke. +All the others looked grave. They showed Vigdoroff much respect and +attention. Even the sneering man made a favourable impression on him +to-night. Only he himself was so ill at ease he could scarcely take part +in the conversation. Other men came. When one of these proved to be +Motl, the trunk-maker in his aunt's employ, Vigdoroff felt somewhat more +at home. + +One of the retired soldiers took to bragging of the courage he and his +two comrades had shown at the taking of Plevna, and when one of the +other two signed to him to stop boasting, he said, with a blush: + +"I am saying all this because--because--what good did it do us? Does the +Czar pat us on the head for it? We risked our lives and many of our +people died under Plevna, and yet if we tried to settle in Great-Russia +we would be kicked out neck and crop, wouldn't we?" + +"Indeed we would, war record, medal and all," one of the other two +chimed in. + +"And why? Because we are Jews. We were not chased home from the firing +line because we were Jews, were we?" + +"Talk of Great-Russia," somebody put in. "As if in a place like Miroslav +we were allowed to live in peace." + +Another man assented with a sigh, adding: "If a thousandth part of the +courage shown by the Jews in the war was shown in our self-defence +against Gentiles, the Gentiles would have more respect for us." + +The conversation turned on the subject of pistols, but the proposition +was overruled. + +"Before we get pistols and learn to use them we'll be asleep under a +quilt of earth," said Zelig. "Why, what ails my cooper's hatchet, or a +hammer, or a plain crowbar?" + +Every time Vigdoroff opened his mouth the faces of the others would +become tense with expectation. But he had nothing to say except to ask +an occasional question, and every time Zelig, playing with his enormous +iron key, pressed him for a speech, he would adjure him, in a flutter of +embarrassment, to let it go this time. + +They talked of the prospective fight in phrases like "forwarding a +remittance to one's snout" or "pulling up sharp under a fellow's +peeper," which amused and jarred on him at once. For the rest, there was +a remarkable flow of common sense, humour and feeling. The gathering +cast a spell over him. He had come with the partial intention of +speaking against their scheme, yet now he felt that he could much more +readily face a gang of armed Gentiles than betray a faint heart to +these Jewish artisans. Moreover--and this was the great point with him +at the present moment--he felt that with these men by his side he could +fling himself into the very thick of the hottest fight. A peculiar sense +of solemnity and of gratification came over him. He followed their talk +reverentially. He humbly offered to call on one of the leaders of the +Defence Committee and to apply for the admission of this group with +himself as one of its members. + +His first dawn of consciousness as he opened his eyes next morning was +of something exceedingly important and solemn which somehow had the +flavour of herring. The active participation of a man like Elkin in the +work of the Defence Committee was a source of disappointment to him. He +usually kept out of Elkin's way, as much for his venomous pleasantry as +for his revolutionary affiliations which he divined from his friendship +with Clara. He wondered whether he meant to give the affair a +revolutionary character. "He must have warned the other members against +me as a silk stocking and a coward," Vigdoroff said to himself bitterly. +"That's probably the way Clara describes me." + +The next morning he was surprised by a visit from Elkin himself. The +revolutionist frowned as he spoke, but this was clearly a disguise for +his embarrassment. + +"Look here, Vigdoroff," he said. "There has not been much love lost +between you and me, but that's foolish--at a time like this anyhow. We +must all work together. We are all Jews. I understand you have organised +a number of good fellows. Let them join the others." + +Vigdoroff's heart beat fast, with emotion as well as with a sense of +flattered pride. He would never have expected Elkin capable of such +soulful talk. Moreover his speaking of himself as a Jew seemed to imply +that he had abandoned Nihilism. "So we 'cowards' were not so very wrong +after all," he thought to himself triumphantly. + +"In the first place," he answered, "it wasn't I who organised them. It +was just the other way, in fact." + +"Well, anyhow, let them join the rest." + +"Of course we will. Only look here, Elkin. You have been frank with +me----" + +"I know what you mean, but you need not worry. I won't get you in +trouble," Elkin replied with his usual venom in his lozenge-shaped +sneer. And then, kindly: "It is not as a Russian revolutionist that I +have gone into this thing. I am one, as much as ever; I have not changed +my views a bit, in fact. But that's another matter. All I want to say is +that in this thing I am as a Jew, as a child of our unhappy, outraged, +mud-bespattered people." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE NIHILISTS' GUARD. + + +Pavel's mother, the countess, had not been in Miroslav since March. She +lived in retirement on one of her estates in another province, in a +constant tremour of fear and compunction. The image of Alexander II. +bleeding in the snow literally haunted her. She took it for granted that +Pavel had had a hand in the bloody plot, and she felt as though she, +too, had been a party to it. + +To ascertain the situation with regard to the riot rumours Pavel called +on his uncle, the governor. He found him dozing on a bench in his +orchard, a stout cane in one hand and a French newspaper in the other. +The old satrap was dressed in a fresh summer suit of Caucasian silk, +which somehow emphasised the uncouth fleshiness of his broad nose. He +was overjoyed to see his nephew, and he plunged into the subject of the +riots at once and of his own accord. It was evidently one of those +situations upon which he usually had to unburden his mind to somebody. + +"Can you tell me what they are up to in that great city of yours?" he +said, referring to St. Petersburg and the higher government circles and +blinking as he spoke. "There is an administration for you! Perhaps you +younger fellows are smarter than we oldsters. Perhaps, perhaps." He took +out a golden cigarette case, lit a cigarette and went on blinking, +sneeringly. + +His words implied that Pavel, being one of the younger generation, was, +morally at least, identified with the administration of the young Czar. + +"What do you mean, uncle?" he inquired. + +"What do I mean? Why, I mean that they don't want those riots stopped. +That's plain enough, isn't it?" + +This was a slap at the doctrine of Pavel's party concerning the +outrages, and he resented it as well as he could. + +"But you have no evidence for such an accusation, uncle," he said. +"That's a mere theory of yours." + +"I knew you would stick up for your generation. Ha, ha, ha! Quite +commendable in a young chap, too. Ha, ha, ha!" + +"But where is your evidence?" + +"You want to know too much, Pasha. Too young for that. If they wanted +the riots stopped, it would be a case of one, two, three, and there she +goes! That's as much as I can tell you, and if you are really clever you +can understand the rest yourself." + +"He is in league with his fellow fleecers, the Jewish usurers," Pavel +remarked inwardly. "He simply cannot afford an anti-Jewish +demonstration, the old bribe-taker." + +"Neither can you," a voice retorted from Pavel's heart, "though for +quite different reasons." + + * * * * * + +Prince Boulatoff called on Orlovsky, the government clerk in whose house +the local revolutionists held their meetings. The first thing that +struck him was Orlovsky's loss of girth. + +"Hello, Aliosha," he said heartily, meeting him at the gate. + +"Why, Pasha!" The clerk flung himself upon him, and they exchanged three +prolonged kisses. + +"By Jove," Pavel went on, "you are so changed I came near letting you +pass. Why, what has become of your bulk, old boy? Have you been ill?" + +"Not exactly," the other answered, leading the way indoors; then, as his +face broke into an expression of wan joy, he added: "Been in love, devil +wrench it. I take these things rather too hard, I suppose, but that's a +small matter. How have you been? Climbing upward in the service of the +revolution, aren't you?" + +The room was the same. The huge tin samovar stood on the floor. + +"Well, and how is your Circle? First-rate fellows all of them," Pavel +said. + +"Yes, indeed. Only we miss Clara now more than ever." + +"Anything specially the matter?" Pavel asked, colouring slightly. + +"Well, it really used to be a splendid circle--in our humble way, that +is--but those riots have had a bad effect on us, deuce take it. Remember +Elkin? It was he who got us together, and now it's he who has brought +discord into our ranks. He is organising people who want to go to +America. This is his hobby now." + +"Why, have the riots knocked all his socialism out of him?" Pavel asked, +grimly. + +"Oh, no," Orlovsky answered with something like dismay. "I wouldn't say +that. It's as an organiser of communistic colonies that he is going to +emigrate. Only he says the Jewish people have a more direct claim upon +him than Russia." + +"There is a revolutionist for you!" Pavel roared, bitterly. "I never did +attach much importance to that fellow. The sooner he goes the better. +God speed him." + +"You're too hard on him, Pasha. He's a good fellow. If we had Clara here +she would straighten it all out. We miss her very much. As a matter of +fact, it was she--indeed, I don't see why I shouldn't tell it to you--it +was she with whom I was in love." + +"Was it?" Pavel asked, colouring. + +He paused, in utter confusion, and resumed, without looking at him. +"Well, you must excuse me, Aliosha, but I fear your frankness goes a bit +too far. Such things are not meant to be published that way." + +"Why? Why? What a funny view you do take of it, Pasha! Suppose a +fellow's heart is full and he meets an intimate old friend of his, is it +an indiscretion on his part if he opens his mind to him?" + +"I certainly am a friend of yours, and a warm one, too, old boy," Pavel +replied with a smile. "But still, things of that sort are usually kept +to oneself." + +Several other members came in. The gigantic samovar, the improvised +sugar bowl, a huge loaf of rye bread, some butter and a lamp made their +appearance on the table. Elkin dropped in later in the evening. He and +Pavel had not been conversing five minutes when they quarrelled. + +"What you are trying to do is to blend the unblendable--to mix socialism +with Jewish chauvinism," Boulatoff said in an ill-concealed rage. + +"Am I?" the other retorted with one of the most virulent of his sneers. +"Can socialism be mixed with the welfare of the Russian people +only?--the welfare of the Russian people with a pailful or two of Jewish +blood thrown in; in plainer language, socialism can only be mixed with +anti-Semitism. Is that it?" + +"Oh, nonsense!" Pavel hissed. "There are other Jews in the movement, +lots of them, and one does not hear that kind of stuff from them. They +have not sickened of the bargain on account of the riots." + +"I don't know whom you mean. Perhaps some of them are still under the +spell of the fact that a Gentile or two will speak to them or even call +them by their first names." + +"Calm down, Elkin," the judge with the fluffy hair and the near-sighted +eyes interposed. "Come, you won't say that of Clara, for instance?" + +"No, not of Clara. But, then, you have not yet heard from her. Sooner or +later she, too, will open her eyes and come to the conclusion that it is +wiser to be a socialist for her own people than for those who will +slaughter and trample upon them. I am sure she will give it all up and +join the emigration--sooner or later." + +"The devil she will," Pavel said quietly, but trembling with fury. + +"Yes, she will," Elkin jeered. + +Pavel felt like strangling him. + +"She is too good a revolutionist to sneak away from the battlefield," +snapped Ginsburg, the red-headed son of the usurer, without raising his +eyes from the table. "Of course, America is a safer place to be a +socialist in. There are no gendarmes there." + +Elkin chuckled. "You had better save your courage for the time the riot +breaks out in this town," he said. "You know it is coming. It may burst +out at any moment, and when it does we'll have a chance to see how a +hero like you behaves himself when the 'revolutionary instincts of the +people are aroused.'" + +"Very well, then, let him go back to the synagogue," Pavel shouted to +the others, losing all his self-control. "But in that case, what's the +sense of his hanging around a place like this?" + +"Oh, I see, you are afraid I'll send spies to this house, are you? Well, +there is less danger of that than that you should take a hand in the +slaughter of Jewish shoemakers, blacksmiths or water-bearers as a bit of +practical 'equality and fraternity,' I can assure you. But then, after +all, you may be right. Good-bye, comrades! Don't judge me hard." + +Tears stood in Orlovsky's eyes. He, the judge, and Mlle. Andronoff, the +judge's fiancee, were for running after him, but the others stopped +them. + +Left to themselves, the group of Nihilists began to discuss the coming +outbreak. Everyone felt, in view of Elkin's charge, that whatever else +was done, no effort should be spared to keep the mob from attacking the +Jewish poor. Much was said about "directing the popular fury into +revolutionary channels," and "setting the masses upon the government," +but most of those who said these things knew in their hearts that they +might as well talk of directing the ocean into revolutionary channels or +of setting a tornado upon the Russian government. Orlovsky alone took it +seriously: + +"It begins to look something like, by Jove," he said beamingly. "We'll +go out, and when the mob gets going, when the revolutionary fighting +blood is up in them, we'll call out to them that Jewish usurers are not +the only enemies of the toiling people; that the Czar is at the head of +all the enemies of the nation. And then, by Jove, Miroslav may set the +pace to all Russia. See if it doesn't." + +The son of the usurer called attention to the extreme smallness of their +number, but he thought it enough to keep the mob from assaulting working +people. He knew that his own relatives were all safe personally. As to +his father's property, he said he would be glad if it was all destroyed +by the "revolutionary conflagration," and he meant it. + +Pavel took no hand in the discussion. Instead, he was pacing to and fro +mopingly. + +At last, after some more speeches, including one by the gawky +seminarist, who came late and who disagreed with everybody else, it was +decided that in case of a riot every Gentile member of the Circle should +be out in the streets, "on picket duty," watching the mob, studying its +mood and "doing everything possible to lend the disturbance a +revolutionary character." + + * * * * * + +Eight Jewish women, including three little girls, were brought to the +Jewish hospital of Miroslav from a neighbouring town, where they had +been outraged in the course of an anti-Semitic outbreak. The little +girls and the prettiest of the other five died soon after they arrived. +The next day the Gentile district bubbled with obscenity. To be sure, +there were expressions of horror and pity, too, but the bulk of the +Christian population, including many an educated and tender-hearted +woman, treated the matter as a joke. Where a Jew was concerned the moral +and human point of view had become a reeling blur. The joke had an +appalling effect. While the stories of pillaged shops kindled the +popular fancy with the image of staved vodka barrels and pavements +strewn with costly fabrics, the case of the eight Jewish women gave rise +to a hideous epidemic of lust. There were thousands of Gentiles for whom +it became no more possible to pass a pretty Jewish woman than to look +into the display window of a Jewish shop without thinking of an +anti-Semitic outbreak. + +The storm was gathering. The mutterings of an approaching riot were +becoming louder and louder. Many Jewish shops were closed. Taverns +serving as stations for stage lines were crowded with people begging to +be taken away from the city before it was too late. + +The Defence Committee did not rest. The volunteers of the several Jewish +districts were organised into so many sections, and a signal system was +perfected by which the various sections were to communicate with each +other. The raiders were sure to be drunk, it was argued, while the +Defence Guard would be sober and acting according to a well-considered +plan. The Guard was spoiling for a fight. + +The Nihilists "on picket duty" were strolling around the streets. + +Troops were held in readiness and placards had been posted forbidding +people to assemble in the streets. Having ordered this, Governor +Boulatoff announced himself ill and in need of a fortnight's leave of +absence. When a delegation implored him to postpone the journey, he +replied curtly that all had been done to insure order. He was in bad +spirits and treated them with unusual rudeness. + +He left Miroslav in the morning. At about noontime of the same day the +town was full of sinister rumours. One of these was about the poisoning +of twelve Christian wells by Jews. + +A few yards off a retired government clerk, in dilapidated though +carefully shined boots and with a red nose, stood in front of one of the +governor's placards forbidding people to congregate in the streets, with +a crowd of illiterate Gentiles about him. + +"'So by an All High ukase,'" he pretended to read, "'all people of the +orthodox Christian faith are hereby ordered to attack the Jews, destroy +their homes and shops, tear their pillows and drink their vodka and +wine, take from them all they have plundered from Christians and +administer a drubbing to them.'" + +As he proceeded he worked himself up to a tone of maudlin solemnity. + +"Aye, the day of reckoning hath come," he went on. "Let not a man of +that unchristian tribe escape. Let the blood of Jesus and of his +followers be avenged." Here, however, he spoiled it all by suddenly +breaking off with a grin of inebriate roguishness. + +The revolutionary seminarist was watching this man philosophically. + +Similar scenes occurred in other neighbourhoods. When in one instance +they had led to an attack upon a rabbinical looking old man who was left +bleeding and unconscious on the pavement, the troops were ordered out. +Then there was a scramble for rooms in Gentile hotels. Twenty-five +rubles a day was charged for a ruble room, and there were a dozen +applicants for each room. Still, those who had money contrived to find +shelter. Much greater difficulty was encountered in many cases in +getting a Christian cabman to take a Jew to a place of refuge. Many a +Gentile rented part of his dwelling to Jews at an enormous price, a +guarantee of safety being included in the bargain. Then, too, there was +a considerable number of Gentiles who received some of their prosperous +Jewish neighbours into their houses without accepting any offer of +payment. Prosperous, because the poorer Jews for the most part lived +huddled together in the Ghetto and were far removed from the Gentile +population. At Pavel's instance Orlovsky went to take Clara's sister and +her family to the house of a relative of his, but he found their door +locked. They were taking refuge with the Vigdoroffs. + +Toward five o'clock, when the crimson sunlight was playing on the gold +steeple of the Church of Our Saviour and the dazzling blue and white of +hussars' uniforms, a small crowd of men and boys came running to the +square in front of the sacred structure. + +"We want to carry out the holy vessels and banners," said a spokesman to +an officer. "We hear the Jews have decided to set fire to God's temple." + +"We won't let them, you may be sure of that," the hussar officer +answered. "You can safely go home." + +The crowd was slowly dispersing, when a man in a red shirt shouted: + +"Boys, I know a Jewish cellar where twenty-five Christian corpses are +kept in empty vodka casks. Come on!" + +The officer did not interfere, and the crowd followed the red-shirt +round the corner to a closed drink-shop. Half an hour later the streets +in that locality rang with a drunken sing-song: "Death to the Jews! +Death to the Christ-killers!" + +The shop was the property of a Jew, who was hiding with his family +somewhere, but the street was inhabited by Gentiles. Meanwhile on a +little square near Nicholas Street, the best street running through the +Jewish quarter, a mob of five hundred men and boys, mostly from the scum +of the population, had seemingly dropped from the sky. A savage +"Hee-hee-hee!" broke loose, scattered itself, died away, and was taken +up again with redoubled energy. All over the district Jews, men and +women, most of them with children clasped in their arms, were running +along the middle of the streets as people run at the sound of a volcano. +Some were fleeing from their shops to their homes and some from their +homes to the hiding places which they had prepared for themselves. The +eyes of most of them had the hollow look of mortal fear. They ran in +family groups, holding close to each other. Here and there a man, his +feet giving way under him, sick and dizzy with fright, would slacken +pace for a minute, as if giving himself up for lost; then, wiping the +cold sweat from his face, he would break into a fresh run, more +desperate than before. Some simply walked quickly, a look of grim +determination on their faces. Here and there an aged man or woman, too +feeble to run, were making a pitiful effort to keep up with the younger +members of their families, who were urging them on with a look of +ghastly impatience. Often a frail little woman with two or three +children in her arms could be seen running as she might down a steep +hill. + +Christians stood on the sidewalks, jeering and mimicking their fright +and making jokes. + +Pavel watched the spectacle in a singular state of mental agitation. His +heart leaped at sight of that chaotic mob as it paraded through the +streets. Visions of the French Revolution floated through his brain, +quickening his pulse. "So our people are _not_ incapable of rising!" he +felt like exclaiming. "The idea of a revolution is _not_ incompatible +with the idea of Russia!" It was as if all the sacrifices he had been +making during the past few years had finally been indorsed by life +itself, as if they were once for all insured against proving to be the +senseless sacrifices of a modern Don Quixote. He could have embraced +this mass of human dregs. And while his mind was in this state, the +panic-stricken men, women and children with oriental features who were +running past him were stranger than ever to him. He simply could not +rouse himself to a sense of their being human creatures like himself at +this moment. It was like a scene on a canvas. Clara did not seem to +belong to these people; and when it came fully home to him that she +did, and how these scenes were apt to stand between him and her, his +heart grew faint within him; whereupon he felt like a traitor to his +cause, and at the same time he was overcome with a sense of his inward +anarchy and helplessness. + +Within the Jewish houses and on their courtyards there was a rush for +sub-cellars, garrets, barrels. As they ran, clambered, tiptoed, +scrambled, they smothered the cries of their frightened babies with +several cases of unconscious infanticide as a result. Christians +hastened to assert the immunity of their houses by placing the image of +the Virgin (a Jewess!) in their windows; and so did many a Jew who had +procured such images for the purpose. Some smashed their own windows and +piled up fragments of furniture in front of their doors, to give their +homes or shops the appearance of having already been visited by mob +fury. Here and there a man was chalking crosses on his gate or shutters. + +While this was in progress several hundred Jews burst from gateways on +and about Nicholas Street and bore down on the enemy with frantic yells +in Russian and in Yiddish. They were armed with crowbars, axes, hammers, +brass knuckles, clubs and what-not. As to the rioters they were mostly +unarmed. Following the established practice of the crusade, they had +expected to begin with some hardware store and there to arm themselves +with battering rams and implements of devastation--an intention which +they had not yet had time to carry out. At sight of this armed +multitude, therefore, they were taken aback. Resistance was not what +they had anticipated. Indeed, for some seconds many of them were under +the impression that the crowd now descending on them was but another +horde of hoodlums. They wavered. A crowd of Jewish butchers, lumberers, +blacksmiths, truck-drivers--the advance guard of the Defence--made a +dash at them, jeering and howling at the top of their lungs, in Yiddish: + +"Let's hack them to pieces! Lively boys! Let's drive right into their +lungs and livers! Let's make carrot-pudding of them! Bravely, fellows, +they're drunk as swine!" + +At this point Orlovsky and the seminarist instinctively joined the +rioters. Elkin and Vigdoroff were on the other side. Pavel was looking +on from the sidewalk. + +The Defence was mistaken. The rioters were almost as sober as they, for, +indeed, it was another part of the stereotyped program of anti-Semitic +riots that drink-shops should be among the very first targets of attack, +so that the invaders might fit themselves for the real work of the riot +by filling themselves full of Jewish vodka. But the Jews, as we have +seen, descended upon them before they had torn down a single door. What +the outcome would have been had the two opposing crowds been left to +themselves is unknown, for a troop of hussars whose commander had been +watching the scene charged on both when they were a few inches apart, +and dispersed them both. Some fifty arrests were made, more than +two-thirds of the prisoners being Jews. The arrested Gentiles went to +police headquarters singing an anti-Semitic refrain and mimicking the +frightened cry of Jewish women. Bystanders, some of the Nihilist +"pickets" among them, shouted: + +"Don't fear, boys. You'll soon go home." And the answer was: + +"Sure we will, and then we'll give them a shaking-up, the scurvy Jews, +won't we?" + +On another business street some boys threw a few tentative stones at a +shop window. There being no interference on the part of the military, a +mob of grown men sprang up. Doors were burst in and rolls of silk and +woollen stuffs came shooting to the pavement. + +"Don't, boys; you had better go home," said a handsome young lieutenant, +affecting the basso of a general. + +The raiders did not desist. While some went on emptying the shop into +the street others were slashing, tearing or biting at the goods. They +did it without zest and somewhat nervously, as if still in doubt as to +the attitude of the authorities. A servant girl unrolled a piece of blue +velvet over a filthy spot on the cobblestones before a lieutenant of the +hussars, saying: + +"Here, sir! Why dirty the dear little feet of your horse? Here is Jewish +velvet for them." + +"Thank you, my dear girl, but you had better go home," the lieutenant +answered, smiling. A crumpled mass of unrolled fabrics, silk, woollen, +velvet, satin, cotton, lay in many-coloured heaps on the pavement and in +the gutter. The rioters, whose movements were still amateurish and +lacked snap, soon wearied of the job. Several of them then broke into a +grocery store and brought forth a barrel of kerosene. + +"What are you going to do?" asked the lieutenant. + +"We'll pour it over the stuff and set fire to it, your high nobleness." + +"That you can't do," the officer returned decisively. "You'll have to go +home now." + +The rioters obeyed at once, many of them taking rolls of silk or velvet +along. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE RIOT. + + +The next morning the Police Master, "in order to avoid bloodshed," +issued a proclamation forbidding Jews to leave their houses. The order +was copied from one that had been issued in other riot-ridden towns +where, as the Miroslav Police Master knew but too well, it meant that +the Jews were prevented from uniting for their self-defence and forced +to await the arrival of the mob, each family in its own isolated +lodgings. At the same time every soldier of the Jewish faith was called +back to barracks, none of their number being included in the patrol, +"for fear of embittering the Christian population." + +A peculiar air hung about the city, an air at once of festive idleness +and suppressed bustle. It looked as it might on the eve of some great +fair. Gentile workmen, staying away from their shops, were parading the +streets, many of them shouldering axes, sledge-hammers, bores, +chisels--their tools of useful toil to be turned to weapons of +demolition and pillage; peasants from neighbouring villages were +arriving with sacks, pails, tubs, spades, axes, pitchforks, their +waggons otherwise empty and ready to be laden with booty. Among the +people in the streets were gangs of trained rioters, come from towns +where their work was at an end. The Jews were in their hiding places +where they had passed the night. Pavel went about alone, avoiding +company, asking himself questions to which his mind had no answer. He +was filled with the excitement of a sportsman a few minutes before the +beginning of a great race; with mental chaos and anxiety. + +At one corner of Cucumber Market a group of peasants took off their +coarse straw hats and bowed to two policemen. + +"We are only ignorant peasants," they said. "Will your High Nobleness +tell us when his Excellency the Police Master will give the order to +start in?" + +"There won't be any order to start in," answered one of the policemen. +"Move along, move along." + +The large market place became white with country people. They were +getting restive. Their sacks and tubs were hungry for the goods of +"Christ-killers." Four years ago many of these very people, dressed like +soldiers, had been driven to the Balkans by a force known to them as the +Czar, to fire at Turks without having the least idea what sort of +creatures those people called Turks were or what they had done to be +fired at. Now they had come here, in obedience to the same force, to rob +and do violence to Jews. Among the out-of-town looters were two tramps +who had it whispered about that they were two well-known generals in +disguise, personal emissaries of the Emperor sent to direct the attack +upon the Jews. These two were soon put in gaol, but that which they +personified, the idea that the anti-Jewish riots met with the Czar's +approval, was left at large. It seized upon soldier and civilian alike. +People who usually kept at a timid distance from everything in the shape +of a uniform, were now bandying jests with army lieutenants and police +captains. The question this morning was not whether one wore the Czar's +uniform or citizen's clothes, but whether one was a Jew or not. An +unusual feeling of kinship linked them all together, and the source of +that feeling was the consciousness that they were not Jews. + +It was about nine o'clock when a large seedy-looking man with a bloated, +sodden face, stepped out of a vast crowd on Cucumber Market, and walked +jauntily up to a deserted fruit stand. Snatching a handful of hickory +nuts, he flung it high in the air, then thrust his two index fingers +into his mouth and blew a loud piercing blast, puffing himself up +violently as he did so. The sound was echoed by similar sounds in many +parts of the crowded market place. + +"Hee-ee-eeee!" came from a thousand frantic throats. + +A long stick was raised with a battered hat for a flag, a hundred human +swarms rushed in all directions, rending the air with their yells, and +pandemonium was loose. + +There was a scramble for hardware shops, vodka shops and places where +Jewish women were said to be secreted. Another few minutes and the +streets were streaming with spirits. The air was filled with the odour +of alcohol, with the din of broken glass, with the clatter of feet, with +the impact of battering rams against doors; and coming through this +general clang, thud and crash of destruction, were smothered groans of +agony, shrieks of horror and despair, the terror-stricken cry of +children, the jeers of triumph and lust. Here a row of shops, their +doors burst in, was sending forth a shower of sugar, kerosene, flour, +spices, coats, bonnets, wigs, dry goods, crockery, cutlery, toys; there +a bevy of men were tearing up the street, piling up the cobble-stones +which others were hurling at shop windows. Some men and women were +carrying away bucketsful of vodka. Others were bending over casks, +scooping out the liquid with their caps, hands or even boots; others +were greedily crouching before barrels, their mouths to the bungholes. +Here and there a man leaning over a broken cask was guzzling at its +contents in a torpor of drunkenness. One rioter, holding a sealed bottle +in his hand and too impatient to look for a corkscrew, smashed its neck +against the sidewalk, while another man, by his side, broke two similar +bottles against each other, and then cursed the Jews as he licked wine +mixed with his own blood off his fingers. Nearby a woman carrying a shoe +full of vodka toward a four-year-old boy who was seated on a pile of +logs, yelled frantically: + +"Here, my darling! Taste it, precious one, so that when you grow up you +may say you remember the day when the ill-gotten wealth of Jews was +smashed by people of the True Faith." + +Women and children were serving vodka to the soldiers in cans, teapots, +saucers, ladles, paper boxes. + +Orlovsky mounted a cask and began to shout, wildly: + +"Don't drink too much, boys! Don't befog your minds! For this is a great +historical moment! Only why attack Jews alone? Behold, the Czar is at +the head of all the blood-suckers in the land!" + +Scarcely anybody listened to him. The crowd was too deeply absorbed in +its orgy. His voice was drowned by a thousand other sounds; his flashing +eyes and his air-pounding fists were part of a nightmare of brutalised +faces, attitudes of greed, gesticulations of primitive humanity run +amuck. Presently, however, a group of belated rowdies came along in +search of drink. They stopped in front of Orlovsky, eyeing the cask +under his feet hopefully, the appearance of the bung showing that its +contents were still intact. + +"Who are you, anyhow?" one of them said to the speaker. "It must be the +Jews who sent you here to talk like that to good Christian people." + +"It isn't true. You're mistaken, old boy," Orlovsky answered hoarsely +and breathing hard, but with a kindly, familiar smile on his flushed, +perspiring face. "I am one of the best friends you and all the people +ever had, I mean the good of all of you fellows. What's the use +attacking Jews only, I say. We had better turn upon the authorities, the +flunkeys of the Czar----" + +"Do you hear what he says?" one of his listeners said, in perplexity, +nudging the fellow by his side. + +"He wants to get us in trouble, the sly fox that he is," somebody +remarked. + +"Sure, he does. And it was by the Jews he was hired to come here. I know +what I am talking about," growled the man who had spoken first. "Down +with him, boys!" + +"Down with him!" the others echoed, thirstily. + +Orlovsky was pulled off and the group of belated rioters, re-enforced by +some others, rushed at the cask savagely. + +Pavel was in another section of the same street. An old little Jewess +whom he saw run out of a gate struck him as the most pathetic figure he +had seen that day. Her fright gave her pinched little face something +like a pout, an air of childlike resentment, as it were. A Gentile boy +snatched off her wig and held it up, jeering to some bystanders, +whereupon she covered her gray head with her bony hands, her faith +forbidding her to expose her hair, and ran on with the same childlike +pout. A sob of pity caught Pavel in the throat. He was about to offer to +take her to a place of safety, when an elderly rowdy, apparently +provoked by her outlandish anxiety about her bare hair, struck her a +vicious blow on the head, accompanying it with profanity. + +"Cur!" Pavel shrieked, springing up to him and landing a smart whack in +his face. + +The rioter looked round with surprise, muttered something and joined the +looters. + +"Come with me, don't be afraid of the scoundrels," Pavel said, taking +her by the hand. His heart was melting with pity for all the Jews at +this moment. He felt a rush of yearning tenderness for Clara, and he +wished she could see him taking care of this woman of her race. + +When he saw two marauders hand out gold and silver watches--the spoils +of a raid--to the patrol, his blood was up again. + +"Is that what you are here for, thieves, vermin that you are?" he +shouted. + +"Who is that fellow? Run him in!" somebody said. + +He fought desperately, cursing the authorities and calling to the mob to +turn upon the soldiers, but he was overpowered and carried away half +dead. When his identity was discovered at Police Headquarters, it caused +a panic among the officials of the place. He was reverently placed in a +carriage and taken to the Palace. + +The Defence Guard gave the rioters fight in two places, and a desperate +encounter it was, but it was not to last long. Troops fell upon them, +beat them with the butts of their rifles and hurled execrations at them +for violating the police ordinance. Every Jew who was armed and every +Jew who looked educated, Elkin among them, was arrested. The others were +driven indoors. Vladimir was brought to police headquarters unconscious, +with blood gushing from his head. + +When the first stack of bedding was pitched out on the sidewalk at +Nicholas Street, from a residence over a tobacco shop, a man with watery +eyes and a beautiful Great-Russian beard, one of the leaders, selected +a big, plump, tempting feather-bed, and opened his pocket-knife with +dignified deliberation. A crowd of about one thousand stood about in +breathless silence, as though attending a religious ceremony of great +solemnity. In order to prolong the spell, the man with the golden beard +played with the feather-bed awhile, kneading, patting, punching it, +brandishing his knife over it, like a barbaric high priest performing +some mystic rite over a captive about to be sacrificed. Then, grasping +it with sudden ferocity, his teeth a-glitter amid his enormous whiskers, +his watery eyes flashing murder, he cut a quick, long gash, rent the +pillow-case apart and hurled its snow-white entrails to the breeze. + +"Hurrah! Hurrah!" the mob yelled savagely, as the breeze seized the down +and flung it in a thousand directions. "Hurrah! Hurrah!" + +The other feather-beds and pillows were ripped up, disemboweled and +emptied by some of the other rioters. The summer-baked street seemed to +be in the grasp of a snow-storm. + +It is one of the characteristics of the housewife of the Ghetto that she +will put up with a poor meal rather than with an uncomfortable bed. The +destruction of pillows and featherbeds is therefore the most typical +scene of anti-Semitic riots in Russia. An Anglo-Saxon crowd viewing a +prize-fight is not thrilled more deeply at sight of "first-blood" than +were the rioters of Miroslav at sight of the first cloud of Jewish down. +Now the outbreak was in full swing. Some of the men came out in +fashionable clothes, their pockets bulging with plunder. The same work +of devastation and pillage was going on in many places at once. About +ten thousand raiders, most of them covered with down, were skirmishing +about in groups of fifty to one hundred, preceded by one or two leaders +and accompanied, in some cases, with a band of toy-drums and whistles. +They went from street to street reconnoitering for houses or shops that +had not yet been visited. Now it looked like a real anti-Jewish riot. +Hurrah! Hurrah! + +After the pillows came the furniture and other household goods, every +bit of it either shivered to flinders or carried off. While some were +busy smashing things or throwing them out of the windows, others were +stripping off their own clothes and arraying themselves in the best +coats, trousers, dresses, bonnets, the raided houses contained. A frowzy +drunken scrub-woman emerged in a gorgeous ball dress, a costly fur cap +on her head, with two gold watches dangling from her neck. One of these +gangs was led by a man who wore a woman's jacket of brown plush and a +high hat. Another leader was decked out in a fashionable summer suit and +a new straw hat, but his feet were bare and encrusted with dirt. A third +gang was preceded by a flag consisting of the torn skirt of an outraged +Jewish woman, the flag-bearer celebrating the exploit as he marched +along. + +Following the looters were dense crowds of spectators, many of them well +dressed and with the stamp of education and refinement on their faces. +These included some well known families, members of the aristocracy, who +watched the scenes of the day from their fashionable equipages. +Officials, merchants, people of the middle class were out in their best +clothes. Miroslav made a great gala day of it. The aristocracy was in a +complacent, race-track mood. Occupants of carriages were exchanging +greetings and pleasantries. Cavaliers were interpreting to their ladies +the bedlam of sound, odour and colour. The appearance of a drunken jade +in a ball dress, strutting with her arms akimbo, in besotted imitation +of a lady, brought forth bursts of facetious applause. The well-dressed +spectators tried to steer clear of down and feathers, but that was +almost impossible. Many streets were so thickly covered with it that it +deadened the sound of traffic. But then to catch some of the Jewish down +on one's dress or bonnet or coat was part of the carnival. Where the +street was strewn with jewelry, silverware or knicknacks, costly +carpets, fabrics, many a noblewoman scanned the ground with the haze of +temptation in her eye. "Isn't that cameo perfectly lovely!" And in many, +many instances the cameo, or the silver tray, or the piece of tapestry +found its way into the lady's carriage. This was during the early stage +of the riot. Later on, when all restraint had been cast off, phaetons +with crests on their sides were filled with plunder. The lame princess +took home one carriage-load and hurried back for more. At every turn one +saw a cavalier offering his lady some piece of finery as he might a rose +or a carnation, and in most cases it was accepted, on the cogent ground +that if left on the pavement it would be destroyed. On the other hand +many of the rioters themselves disdained to appropriate anything that +was not theirs. Very often when a Jew offered his assailants all the +money he had about him as a ransom the paper money was torn to pieces +and silver or coppers was flung out into the street, whereupon the crowd +outside would fall over each other in a wild scramble for shreds of the +paper or the metal. In one place a man offered the mob all he had in the +world as a ransom for his daughter's honour, but his money was +destroyed, his daughter assaulted and he himself mortally wounded. When +a peasant woman was seen carrying an armful of linen and ribbons out of +a small shop, she was stopped by one of the rioters. + +"Drop that, you old hag," he shouted. "We are no robbers, are we?" He +added a torrent of unprintable Russian and kicked the woman into a swamp +of syrup, whisky and flour. A short distance from this spot other +peasant women were stuffing their sacks lustily, whereupon some of them +preferred loud linen to black silk and cheap spoons to silver ones. In +several places large sums of money were plundered. As the bank and check +system was (and still is) in its very infancy in Miroslav, this meant in +most cases that people of means were literally reduced to beggary. One +family was saved from personal violence as well as from the loss of its +fortune by an iron safe which the looters spent the whole day in vainly +trying to open. But then, while they were at work on the safe, the +mother of the family went insane with fright. + +Marching side by side with the leaders of the various bands were the +competitors of Jewish tradesmen or mechanics who acted as guides, each +pointing out the stores or workshops of his rivals. Thus Rasgadayeff, +after instructing his wife and servants to see to it that no harm was +done to his tenants, the Vigdoroffs, had gone to the scene of the +outbreak, where he directed a crowd of rowdies to the store of his most +formidable business opponent. The place was raided. A wealth of costly +furs was cut to pieces and flung into the street, where cans of kerosene +and pails of tar were emptied over the pile, while more than half as +much again was carried off intact. + +"Boys, no stealing," Rasgadayeff said, in a drunken gibberish, when it +was too late. All he could save from the marauders for the slashers was +a sable muff over which two women rioters were fighting desperately. + +In the meantime Rasgadayeff's tenants and the people who sought shelter +in their house,--the family of Clara's sister and the two or three +strangers--had had a narrow escape from coming face to face with an +infuriated band of hoodlums. Their presence had been indicated by a +Gentile woman across the street. Mme. Rasgadayeff had tearfully begged +the rioters to desist and after some parleying it had been agreed that +the Vigdoroffs and their guests should be allowed to escape to their +landlord's apartments before the mob invaded their rooms. From an attic +window commanding the street Vladimir's parents then saw their household +effects and their celebrated library--the accumulations of thirty +years--flung out on the pavement where it was hacked, torn, slashed, +trampled upon, flooded with water, mixed with a stream of preserves, +brine, kerosene, vinegar, until the contents of eight rooms and cellar, +all that for the past thirty years had been their home, were turned into +two mounds of pulp. The Vigdoroffs watched it all with a peculiar sense +of remoteness, with a sort of lethargic indifference. When old Vigdoroff +saw the rioters struggling with the locked drawer of his desk, he +remarked to his wife: + +"Idiots! Why don't they knock out the bottom?" When one of the mob hurt +his fingers trying to rend an old parchment-bound folio, he emitted a +mock sigh, quoting the Yiddish proverb: "Too much hurry brings nothing +but evil." Only when Clara's little niece began to shake and cry in a +paroxysm of childish anguish, upon seeing her doll in the hands of a +little girl from across the street, did the whole family burst into +tears. + +"I'm going to kill them. Let them kill me!" the old man said, leaping to +his feet. But his wife and daughters hung to him, and held him back. + +Later on, when the rioters had gone, the family returned to their nest. +The eight rooms were absolutely empty, as though their occupants had +moved out. + +Gradually the various bands of rioters got into the swing of their work +and did it with the system and method of an established trade. First the +pavement was torn up, the cobblestones being piled up and then crashed +into the windows; the padlocks were then knocked off by means of +crowbars, hammers or axes and the doors battered down or broken in. Next +the contents of pillows were cast to the wind, after which, the street +having thus received its baptism of Jewish down, the real business of +the rioters was begun by the wreckers and the looters. If the shop +raided was a clothier's and the freebooters had not yet prinked +themselves they would do so to begin with, some of them returning to the +streets in two pairs of trousers, two coats and even two hats. After a +house or a shop had been gutted and its contents wrecked or plundered it +would be left to children who would then proceed to play riot on its +ruins. Here and there a committee followed in the wake of some band, +ascertaining whether some Jewish dwelling or shop had not been passed +over, or whether a roll of woollen or a piece of furniture had not been +left undestroyed. Not a chair, not a pound of candles was allowed to +remain unshattered. Kerosene was poured over sugar, honey was mixed with +varnish, ink or milk. It was hard, slow work, this slashing and rending, +smashing and grinding. Some raiders toiled over a single article till +they panted for breath. A common sight was a man or a woman tearing at a +piece of stuff with broken finger-nails and bleeding fingers, +accompanying their efforts with volleys of profanity at the expense of +the Jews whose wares seemed as hard to destroy as their owners. In one +place the mob was blaspheming demoniacally because a heap of ground +pepper from a wrecked grocery store had thrown them into a convulsion of +sneezing. + + * * * * * + +The most hideous delirium of brutality was visited upon Paradise,--upon +that district of narrow streets and lanes in the vicinity of Cucumber +Market which was the seat of the hardest toil and the blackest need, the +home of the poorest mechanics, labourers and tradesmen. As though +enraged by the dearth of things worth destroying, the rioters in this +section took it out of the Jews in the most bestial forms of cruelty and +fiendishness their besotted minds could invent. The debris here was made +up of the cheapest articles of furniture and mechanics' tools. It was +here that several Jewish women were dragged out into the street and +victimised, while drunken women and children aided their husbands and +fathers in their crimes. One woman was caught running through a gale of +feathers and down, her child clasped in her arms. Another woman was +chuckling aloud in a fit of insanity, as she passed through the district +in a cab, when she was pulled off the vehicle. A good-looking girl tried +to elude the rioters by disguising herself as a man, but she was +recognised and the only thing that saved her was a savage fight among +her assailants. A middle-aged woman came out of a house with shrieks of +horror, imploring an intoxicated army officer to go to the rescue of her +daughter. The officer followed her indoors, but instead of rescuing the +younger woman the only thing that saved her own honour was his drunken +condition. One woman who broke away from two invaders and was about to +jump out of her window, was driven back at the point of the bayonet by +one of the soldiers in front of the house. + +"We are under orders not to allow any Jews to get out," he explained to +her, good-naturedly. + +"Take pity, oh, do take pity," she was pleading, when her voice was +choked off by somebody within. + +Every synagogue in town was sacked, the holy ark in many cases being +desecrated in the most revolting manner; while the Scrolls of the Law +were everywhere cut to ribbons, some of which were wound around cats and +dogs. One woman met her awful fate upon scrolls from the Old Synagogue +at the hands of a ruffian who had once heard it said that that was the +way Titus, the Roman emperor, desecrated the Temple upon taking +Jerusalem. Two strong Jews who risked their lives in an attempt to +rescue some of the scrolls were seen running through the streets, their +precious and rather heavy burden hugged to their hearts. The mob gave +chase. + +"'Hear, O Israel!'" one of the two men shrieked, "'God is God. God is +one.'" + +But the verse, which will keep evil spirits at a respectful distance +from every Jew who utters it, failed to exercise its powers on the +rioters. The two men were overtaken and beaten black and blue and the +scrolls were cut to pieces. + +A white-haired musician, venturing out of his hiding place, begged the +mob to spare his violin which he said was older than he; whereupon the +instrument was shattered against the old man's head. On another street +in the same section of the city another Jewish fiddler was made to play +while his tormentors danced, and when they had finished he had to break +the violin with his own hands. Pillows were wrenched from under invalids +to be ripped up and thrown into the street. In one tailoring shop a +consumptive old man, too feeble to be moved, was found with a bottle of +milk in his trembling hands, his only food until his children should +find it safe to crawl back to the house. + +"You have drunk enough of our milk, you scabby Christ-killer!" yelled a +rioter as he knocked the bottle out of the tailor's hand and hit his +head with a flat-iron. + +Little Market in front of Boyko's Court, the home of Clara's father and +mother, glistened with puddles of vodka, in which cats and dogs, +overcome by the alcoholic evaporations, lay dead or half-dead. Now and +then a drunken rioter would crouch before one of these puddles, dip up a +handful of the muddy stuff with his hands and gulp it thirstily, with an +inebriate smile of apology to the bystanders. The corner of a lane +nearby was piled with brass dust and with broken candle-stick moulds. A +horse trough in the rear of the police booth was full of yolks and +egg-shells. When the goose market next door to Boyko's Court was raided +some of the fowls were stabbed or had their necks wrung on the spot, +while others were driven into the vodka ponds on the square. A hundred +geese and ducks went splashing through the intoxicating liquid, +fluttering and cackling. A number of rioters formed a cordon preventing +them from waddling out and then fell to stabbing them with knives and +pitchforks, till every pool of vodka was red. + +"Jewish geese, curse them! Jewish geese, curse them!" they snarled. + +Not very far off, hard by a wall, a Jewish woman was giving birth to a +child. Presently a Gentile woman with a basket half filled with loot +took pity on the child and took it home, giving the policeman her +address, while the mother was left bleeding to death. + +It was also in this district of toil and squalor where the most +desperate fighting was done by the Jews. One lane was held by five of +them against a mob of fifty for more than half an hour until the five +men were lugged off to jail, and then the remaining inhabitants of the +lane became the victims of the most atrocious vengeance in the history +of the day. A mother defended a garret against a crowd of rioters by +brandishing a heavy crowbar in front of them. The maddened Gentiles then +scaled the wall and charged the roof with axes and sledge-hammers. Part +of the roof gave way. The woman continued to swing the crowbar until she +fell in a swoon. + + * * * * * + +The houses of the richest Jews were closely guarded by the soldiery and, +barring one exception, rioters were kept at a safe distance from them. +Even the house of Ginsburg, the most repugnant usurer in town, was taken +care of. Some army officers, indeed, directed various bands of roughs to +the place on the chance of having their promissory notes destroyed, but +the roughs failed to get near it. There was an instinct in official +circles that the wrecking of wealthy Jewish homes was apt to develop in +the masses a taste for playing havoc with "seats of the mighty." For +after all a man like Ginsburg and a titled plunderer of peasant lands +are not without their bonds of affinity. The great point was that in +dealing with Jewish magnates Popular Fury was liable to confuse the Jew +with the magnate, the question of race with the question of class. + +As to the Gentile magnates their attitude toward the rioters was one +which seemed to say: "You fellows and we are brothers, are we not?" And +their mansions were safe. Members of the gentry openly joined the +rioters, some out of sheer hatred of the race, others for the sport of +the thing, still others honestly succumbing to the contagion of +beastliness. In the horrid saturnalia of pillage, destruction and rapine +many a peaceful citizen was drawn into the vortex. A man stands looking +on curiously, perhaps even with some horror, and gradually he becomes +restless as do the legs of a dancer when the floor creaks under a medley +of sliding feet. But then there was a large number of Gentiles who acted +like human beings. Among these were members of the priesthood, although +there were holy "little fathers" who pointed out the houses of their +Jewish neighbours to the mob. + + * * * * * + +The best friend of the Jews during that day of horrors was Vodka. The +sons of Israel were made a safety valve of by the government and Vodka +rendered a similar service to the sons of Israel. It saved scores of +lives and the honour of scores of women. Hundreds of the fiercest +rioters were so many tottering wrecks before the atrocities were three +hours old, while by sundown the number of dead and wounded looters was +as large as the number of murdered and maimed Jews. Two men were found +drowned in casks of spirits into which they had apparently let their +heads sink in a daze of intoxication. A handsome young rioter in a +crimson blouse staggered over the balustrade of a balcony, hugging a +Jewish vase, and was killed on the spot. One man was killed in a +struggle over a Jewish woman and several others had simply drunk +themselves to death, while a countless number were bruised and disabled +in the general melee, falling, fighting, injuring themselves with their +own weapons of destruction. + +Toward evening some of the streets had the appearance of a battlefield +after action. Hundreds of men and women, swollen, bleeding, were +wallowing in the gutters, in puddles, on the sidewalks, between piles of +debris, in a revolting stupor of inebriety. Some of them slept several +hours in this condition and then struggled to their feet to resume +drinking. The trained rioters had thoughtfully seen to it that some +casks of vodka, as also some accordions, should be reserved for the +closing scenes of the bacchanalia. + +The moon came out. Her soft mysterious light streamed through the rugged +holes of shattered unlit windows; over muddy pavements carpeted with +silks, velvets, satins; over rows and rows of debris-mounds on streets +snowed under with down; over peasants driving home with waggons laden +with plunder; over the ghastly figures of sprawling drunkards and the +beautiful uniforms of patrolling hussars. Silence had settled over most +of the streets. For blocks and blocks, east and west, north and south, +there was not an unbroken window pane to be seen, not a light to glitter +in the distance. The Jewish district, the liveliest district in town, +had been turned into a "city of death." In other places one often saw a +single illuminated house on a whole street of darkness and ruin. The +illuminated house was invariably the abode of Christians. Officers on +horseback were moving about musingly, the hoofs of their horses silenced +by thick layers of down. Most streets were impassable for the debris. +Here and there the jaded sounds of revelry were heard, but there were +some peasants who had come out of the day's rioting in full control of +their voices. + +Seated on empty boxes and barrels, their fingers gripping new +accordions, their eyes raised to the moon, a company of rioters on +Little Market were playing and singing a melancholy, doleful tune. The +Jews were in their hiding places. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS. + + +Clara was with her parents in a White-Russian town. The inn at which +they were stopping was entered through a vast yard, partly occupied by +fruit-barns. It was the height of the fruit season. The barns and part +of the yard were lined with straw upon which rose great heaps of apples +and pears of all sizes and colours. Applewomen, armed with baskets, were +coming and going, squatting by the juicy mounds, sampling them, +haggling, quarrelling mildly. Now and then a peasant waggon laden with +fruit would come creaking through the open gate, attracting general +attention. A secluded corner of the yard was Clara's and her mother's +favourite spot for their interminable confidences, a pile of large bulky +logs serving them as a sofa. The people they saw here and in the streets +were much shabbier and more insignificant-looking than those of their +native town and the south in general. The Yavners lived here +unregistered, as did most of the guests at the inn, the local police +being too lazy and too "friendly" with the proprietor to trouble his +patrons about having their passports vised at the station house. + +The town was a stronghold of Talmudic learning, and Rabbi Rachmiel felt +as a passionate art student does on his first visit to Italy. When the +first excitement of the meeting was over the local scholars were of +more interest to him than his daughter. His joy was marred by his fear +of being sent to Siberia in case Clara's (to her parents she was still +Tamara) identity was discovered by the local police; but he had a rather +muddled idea of the situation and his wife assured him that there was no +danger. As to Hannah, she was not the woman to flee from her daughter +for fear of the police. She could not see enough of Clara. She +catechised her on her political career and her personal life, and Clara, +completely under the spell of the meeting and in her mother's power, +told her more than she had a mind to. What she told her was, indeed, as +foreign to Hannah's brain as it was to her husband's; but then, in her +practical old-fashioned way, she realised that her daughter was working +in the interests of the poor and the oppressed, though she never +listened to Clara's expositions without a sad, patronising smile. + +One day, during one of their intimate talks on the wood-pile, the old +woman demanded: + +"Tell me, Clara, are you married?" + +"What has put such an idea in your mind?" Clara returned, reddening. "If +I were I would have told you long ago." + +"Tamara, you are a married woman," Hannah insisted, looking hard at her +daughter. + +"I tell you I am not," Clara said testily. + +"Then why did you get red in the face when I said you were? People don't +get red without reason, do they?" + +The young woman's will power seemed to have completely deserted her. "I +am engaged," she said, "but I am not married, and--let me alone, mamma, +will you?" + +"If you are engaged, then why were you afraid to say so? Is it anything +to be ashamed of to be engaged? Foolish girl that you are, am I a +stranger to you? Why don't you tell me who he is, what he is?" + +"He is a nice man and that's all I can tell you now, and pray don't ask +me any more questions, mamma darling." + +After a pause the old woman gave her daughter a sharp look and said in a +whisper: "He must be a Christian, then. Else you wouldn't be afraid to +tell me who he is." + +"He is not," Clara answered lamely, her eyes on a heap of yellow apples +in the distance. + +"He _is_ a Christian, then," Hannah said in consternation. "May the +blackest ill-luck strike you both." + +"Don't! Don't!" Clara entreated her, clapping her hand over her mother's +mouth, childishly. + +"What! You _are_ going to marry a Christian? You _are_ a +convert-Jewess?" Hannah said in a ghastly whisper. + +"No, no, mamma! I have not become a Christian, and I never will. I swear +I won't. As to him, he is the best man in the world. That's all I can +tell you for the present. Oh, the young generation is so different from +the old, mamma!" she snuggled to her, nursing her cheek against hers and +finding intense pleasure in a conscious imitation of the ways of her own +childhood; but she was soon repulsed. + +"Away from my eyes! May the Black Year understand you. I don't," the old +woman said. Her face wore an expression of horrified curiosity. Had +Clara faced her fury with a pugnacious front, it might have led to an +irretrievable rupture; but she did not. While her mother continued to +curse, she went on fawning and pleading with filial self-abasement, +although not without an effect of trying to soothe an angry baby. +Hannah's curses were an accompaniment to further interrogations and +gradually became few and far between. Her daughter's engagement and her +whole mysterious life appealed to an old-fashioned sense of romance and +adventure in the elderly Jewess; also to a vague idea of a higher +altruism. Her motherly pride sought satisfaction in the fact that her +daughter was so kind-hearted as to stake her life for the poor and the +suffering, and so plucky that she braved the Czar and all his soldiers. +"It's from me she got all that benevolence and grit," Hannah said to +herself. As to Rabbi Rachmiel, he asked no questions and his wife was +not going to disturb his peace of mind. + +"There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile among us," Clara said +in the course of her plea. + +"No, there is not," her mother returned. "Only the Gentiles tear the +Jews to pieces." And at this Clara remembered that circumstance which +lay like a revolting blemish on her conscience--the attitude of the +revolutionists toward the riots. + +However, these matters got but little consideration from her now. She +was taken up with her parents. The peculiar intonation with which her +father chanted grace interested her more than all the "politics" of the +world. She recognised these trifles with little thrills of joy, as +though she had been away from home a quarter of a century. When her +mother took out a pair of brass-rimmed spectacles on making ready to +read her prayers, Clara exclaimed, with a gasp of unfeigned anguish: + +"Spectacles! Since when, mamma darling, since when?" + +"Since about six months ago. One gets older, foolish girl, not younger. +When you are of my age you'll have to use spectacles, too, all your +Gentile wisdom notwithstanding." + +Another day or two and her communions with her mother and the odour of +apples and pears began to pall on her. She missed Pavel. Her mind was +more frequently given over to musings upon that atmosphere amid which he +and she were a pair of lovers than to the fascination of being with her +father and mother again. She felt the centuries that divided her world +from theirs more keenly every day. Once, after a long muse by the side +of her mother, who sat darning stockings in her spectacles, she roused +herself, with surprise, to the fact that Sophia was no more, that she +had been hanged. It seemed incredible. And then it seemed incredible +that she, Clara, was by her mother's side at this moment. She took +solitary walks, she sought seclusion indoors, she was growing fidgety. +The change that had come over her was not lost upon her mother. + +"You have been rather quick to get tired of your father and mother, +haven't you?" Hannah said to her one day. "Grieving for your Christian +fellow? A break into your bones, Tamara!" + +Clara blushed all over her face. She was more than grieving for Pavel. +She pictured him in the hands of the gendarmes or shot in a desperate +fray with them; she imagined him the victim of the ghastliest +catastrophes known to the movement, her heart was torn by the wildest +misgivings. + +One afternoon, when her mother was speaking to her and she was making +feeble efforts to disguise her abstraction, Hannah, losing patience, +flamed out: + +"But what's the use talking to a woman whose mind has been bedeviled by +a Gentile!" + +"Don't, then," Clara snapped back, with great irritation. + +"The Black Year has asked you to arrange this meeting. Why don't you go +back to your Gentile? Go at once to him or your heart will burst." + +Clara was cut to the quick, but she mastered herself. + +When she read in the newspapers and in a letter from her sister accounts +of the Miroslav outbreak, her agony was far keener than that of her +father and mother. The most conspicuous circumstance in every report of +the riot was the bestial ferocity with which the mob had let itself +loose on the homes of the poorest and hardest working population in +those districts of Miroslav known as Paradise and Cucumber Market. She +knew that neighbourhood as she knew herself. She had been born and bred +in it. The dearest scenes of her childhood were there. Tears of +homesickness and of a sense of guilt were choking her. + +For the first time it came home to her that these thousands of Jewish +tailors, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, lumber-drivers, capmakers, coopers, +labourers, who toiled from fourteen to fifteen hours a day and lived +literally on the verge of starvation, were as much at least entitled to +that hallowed name, "The People," as the demonised Russians who were now +committing those unspeakable atrocities upon them. Yet the organ of her +party had not a word of sympathy for them! Nay, it treated all Jews, +without distinction, as a race of fleecers, of human leeches! Russian +literature of the period was teeming with "fists," or village usurers, +types of the great Russian provinces in which Jews were not allowed to +dwell. Drunkenness in these districts was far worse than in those in +which the liquor traffic was in Jewish hands. And the nobility--was it +not a caste of spongers and land-robbers? Yet who would dare call the +entire Russian people a people of human sharks, liquor-dealers and +usurers, as it was customary to do in the case of the Jews? A Russian +peasant or labourer was part of the People, while a Jewish tailor, +blacksmith or carpenter was only a Jew, one of a race of profit-mongers, +sharpers, parasites. + +And this "People," for whose sake she was staking her liberty and her +life, was wreaking havoc on Jews because they were Jews like her father, +like her mother, like herself. + +People at the inn were talking of the large numbers of Jews that were +going to America. "America or Palestine?" was the great subject of +discussion in the three Russian weeklies dedicated to Jewish interests. +One day Hannah said, gravely: + +"I tell you what, Tamara. Drop your Gentile and the foolish work you are +doing and let us all go to America." + +Clara smiled. + +"Will it be better if you are caught and put in a black hole?" + +Clara smiled again. There was temptation in what her mother said. Being +in Russia she was liable to be arrested at any moment; almost sure to +perish in a solitary cell or to be transported to the Siberian mines for +twenty years. And were not the riots enough to acquit her before her own +conscience in case she chose to retire from a movement that was +primarily dedicated to the interests of an anti-Semitic people; from a +movement that rejoiced in the rioters and had not a word of sympathy for +their victims? + +But an excuse for getting out of the perils of underground life was not +what she wanted. Rather did she wish for a vindication of her conduct in +remaining in the Party of the Will of the People in spite of all "the +People" did against her race. She was under the sway of two forces, each +of them far mightier than any temptation to be free from danger. One of +these two forces was Pavel. The other was Public Opinion--the public +opinion of underground Russia. According to the moral standard of that +Russia every one who did not share in the hazards of the revolutionary +movement was a "careerist," a self-seeker absorbed exclusively in the +feathering of his own nest; the Jew who took the special interests of +his race specially to heart was a narrow-minded nationalist, and the +Nihilist who withdrew from the movement was a renegade. The power which +this "underground" public opinion exerted over her was all the greater +because of the close ties of affection which, owing to the community of +the dangers they faced, bound the active revolutionists to each other. +Pavel and Clara were linked by the bonds of love, but she would have +staked her life for every other member of the inner circle as readily as +she would for him. + +They were all particularly dear to her because they were a handful of +survivors of an epidemic of arrests that had swept away so many of their +prominent comrades. The notion of these people thinking of her as a +renegade was too horrible to be indulged in for a single moment. +Besides, who would have had the heart to desert the party now that its +ranks had been so decimated and each member was of so much value? Still +more revolting was such an idea to Clara when she thought of the +Nihilists who had died on the scaffold or were dying of consumption or +scurvy or going insane in solitary confinement. Sophia, strangled on the +gallows, was in her grave. Would she, Clara, abandon the cause to which +that noble woman had given her life? + +The long and short of it is that it would have required far more +courage on her part to go to America and be safe from the Russian +gendarmes than to live under constant fire as an active "illegal" in her +native country. + +This was the kind of thoughts that were occupying her mind at this +minute. While her mother was urging her to go to America, she exclaimed +mutely: "No, Sophia, I shan't desert the cause for which they have +strangled you. I, too, will die for it." It seemed easy and the height +of happiness to end one's life as Sophia had done. She saw her dead +friend vividly, and as her mind scanned the mysterious, far-away image, +the dear, familiar image, her bosom began to heave and her hand clutched +her mother's arm in a paroxysm of suppressed tears. + +"Water! Water!" Hannah cried into the open doorway. When the water had +been brought and Clara had gulped down a mouthful of it and fixed a +faint, wistful smile on her mother, Hannah remarked fiercely: + +"The ghost knows what she is thinking of while people talk to her." + +Clara went out for a long walk over the old macadamised road that ran +through the White-Russian town on its way to St. Petersburg. She loved +to watch the peasant wagons, and, early in the morning and late in the +evening, the incoming and outgoing stage-coaches. She knew that she was +going to stay in the thick of the struggle, come what might. Yet the +riots--more definitely the one of Miroslav--lay like a ruthless living +reproach in her heart. She wanted to be alone with this Reproach, to +plead with it, to argue with it, to pick it to pieces. She walked +through the shabby, narrow streets and along the St. Petersburg highway, +thinking a thousand thoughts, but she neither pleaded with that +Reproach, nor argued with it, nor tried to pick it to pieces. Her mind +was full of Pavel and of Sophia and of her other comrades, living or +dead. "It is all very well for me to think of going to America and be +free from danger," she said to herself. "But can Sophia go there? or +Hessia?" + +At one moment it flashed through her brain that to be true to the people +was to work for it in spite of all its injustices, even as a mother did +for her child, notwithstanding all the cruelties it might heap on her. +The highest bliss of martyrdom was to be mobbed by the very crowd for +whose welfare you sacrificed yourself. To be sure, these thoughts were +merely a reassertion of the conflict which she sought to settle. They +offered no answer to the question, Why should she, a Jewess, stake her +life for a people that was given to pillaging and outraging, to +mutilating and murdering innocent Jews? They merely made a new statement +of the fact that she was bent upon doing so. Yet she seized upon the new +formulation of the problem as if it were the solution she was craving +for. "I shall bear the cross of the Social Revolution even if the +Russian people trample upon me and everybody who is dear to me," she +exclaimed in her heart, feeling at peace with the shade of Sophia. + +She walked home in a peculiar state of religious beatitude, as though +she had made a great discovery, found a golden key to the gravest +problem of her personal life. Then, being in this uplifted frame of +mind, she saw light breaking about her. Arguments were offering +themselves in support of her position. When Russia was free and the +reign of fraternity and equality had been established the maltreatment +of man by man in any form would be impossible. Surely there would be no +question of race or faith then. Anti-Jewish riots were now raging? All +the more reason, then, to work for Russia's liberty. Indeed, was not +the condition of the Jews better in free countries than in despotic +ones? And the Russian peasant, would he in his blind fury run amuck the +way he did if it were not for the misery and darkness in which he was +kept by his tyrants? Her heart went out to the mob that was so ignorant +as to attack people who had done them no harm. And then, once the great +Reproach had been appeased in her mind, the entire Jewish question, +riots, legal discriminations and all, appeared a mere trifle compared to +the great Human Question, the solution of which constituted the chief +problem of her cause. + +The next time her mother indulged in an attack upon Gentiles in general +and Clara's "Gentile friends" in particular the young woman begged her, +with tears in her voice, to desist: + +"Look at her! I have touched the honour of the Impurity," the old woman +said, sneering. + +"Oh, they are not the Impurity, mamma darling," Clara returned ardently. +"They are saints; they live and die for the happiness of others. If you +only knew what kind of people they were!" + +"She has actually been bedeviled, as true as I am a daughter of Israel. +Jews are being torn to pieces by the Gentiles; a Jew isn't allowed to +breathe, yet she----" + +"Oh, they are a different kind of Gentiles, mamma. When that for which +they struggle has been realised the Jew will breathe freely. Our people +have no trouble in a country like England. Why? Because the whole +country has more freedom there. Besides, when the demands of my 'Gentile +friends' have been realised the Christian mobs won't be so uneducated, +so blind. They will know who is who, and Jew and Gentile will live in +peace. All will live in peace, like brothers, mamma." + +Hannah listened attentively, so that Clara, elated by the apparent +effect of her plea, went on, going over aloud the answer that she gave +her own conscience. When she paused, however, Hannah said with a shrug +of her shoulders and a mournful nod of her head: + +"So you are bound to rot away in prison, aren't you?" + +"Don't talk like that, mamma, dear, pray." + +"Why shouldn't I? Has somebody else given birth to you? Has somebody +else brought you up?" + +"But why should you make yourself uneasy about me? I _won't_ rot away in +prison, and if I do, better people than I have met with a fate of that +kind. I wish I were as good as they were and died as they did." + +"A rather peculiar taste," Hannah said with another shrug which seemed +to add: "She has gone clear daft on those Gentile books of hers, as true +as I live." + + * * * * * + +Clara remained in the White-Russian town two days longer than her +parents. At the moment of parting her mother clung to her desperately. + +"Will I ever see you again?" Hannah sobbed. "Daughter mine, daughter +mine! Will my eyes ever see you again?" + +The old Talmudist was weeping into a blue bandanna. + +As Clara walked back to her lodging alone the streets of the strange +town gave her an excruciating sense of desolation. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +PAVEL BECOMES "ILLEGAL." + + +A month had elapsed. Clara was in a train, bound for Moscow, where her +lover was awaiting her arrival. The nearer she drew to her destination +the more vivid grew his features in her mind and the more violent was +her fidget. "I am madly in love with him," she said to herself, and the +very sound of these words in her mind were sweet to her. The few weeks +of separation seemed to have convinced her that the power of his love +over her was far greater than she had supposed. Things that had preyed +upon her mind before now glanced off her imagination. She wept over the +fate of Hessia and her prison-born child, yet she felt that if Pavel +asked her to marry him at once she would not have the strength to resist +him. Nay, to marry him was what her heart coveted above all else in the +world. + +Being an "illegal," she had to slip into the big ancient city quietly. +As she passed through the streets, alone on a droshky, she made a mental +note of the difference in general pictorial effect between Moscow and +St. Petersburg, but she was too excited to give her mind to anything in +particular. + +Her first meeting with Pavel took place in a large cafe, built something +like a theatre, with two tiers of stalls, a gigantic music box sending +up great waves of subdued sound from the main floor below. He waited +for her in front of the building. When she came they just shook hands +smilingly, and he led the way up one flight of stairs to one of the +stalls--a fair-sized, oblong private room, its walls covered with red +plush, with upholstered benching to match. + +"I am simply crazy, Clanya!" he whispered, pressing her to him +tremulously. + +At first they both experienced a sense of desuetude and awkwardness, so +that in spite of his stormy demonstrations he could not look her full in +the face. But this soon wore off. They were overflowing with joy in one +another. + +A waiter, all in white, suave and hearty as only Great-Russian waiters +know how to be, brought in "a portion of tea," served in attractive +teapots of silver, with a glass for the man and a cup for the lady, and +retired, shutting the door behind him, which subdued the metallic melody +that filled the room still further and added to the sense of mystery +that came from it. They talked desultorily and brokenly, of her parents +and of the revolutionists gathered in Moscow. The subject of the +Miroslav riot was tactfully broached by Clara herself, but she strove to +give this part of their incoherent conversation the tone in which people +usually discuss some sad but long-forgotten event, and she passed to +some other topic as quickly and imperceptibly as she could. That he had +seen that riot he did not tell her, though he once caught himself on the +point of blurting it all out. + +When she asked him about the general state of the movement he gradually +warmed up. The outlook was brilliant, he said. + +Urie, the tall blond nobleman with the strikingly Great-Russian +features, who had played the part of cheesemonger on Little Garden +Street, St. Petersburg, was in Moscow now, mending the shattered +organisation. He was the centre of a busy group of revolutionists, Jews +as well as Slavs. Several well-known veterans of both nationalities, who +had been living in foreign countries during the past year or two, were +expected to return to Russia. Everybody was bubbling with enthusiasm and +activity. + +"And your fiery imagination is not inclined to view things in a rather +roseate light, is it?" she asked, beaming amorously. + +"Not a bit," he replied irascibly. "Wait till you have seen it all for +yourself. The reports from the provinces are all of the most cheerful +character. New men are springing up everywhere. The revolution is a +hydra-headed giant, Clanya." + +"But who says it isn't?" she asked, with a laugh. + +She got up, shot out her arms, saying: + +"Now for something to do. I feel like turning mountains upside down. +Indeed, the revolution is a hydra-headed giant, indeed it is. And you +are a little dear," she added, bending over him and pressing her cheek +against his. + + * * * * * + +They had been married less than a month when he learned from a ciphered +letter from Masha Safonoff that the gendarmes were looking for him. + +"Well, Clanya," he said facetiously, as he entered their apartment one +afternoon, "you are a princess no longer." + +Her face fell. + +"Look at her! Look at her! She is grieving over the loss of her title." + +"Oh, do stop those silly jokes of yours, Pasha. Must you become +illegal?" + +"Yes, ma'am. I am of the same rank as you. That puts a stop to the airs +you have been giving yourself." It was in the course of the same +conversation that he told her of his trip to Miroslav and of all that +had happened to him there. + +They were known here as brother and sister, his legal residence being in +another place, but now both these residences were abandoned, and they +moved into a new apartment, in another section of the town, which he +took great pains to put in tasteful shape. Indeed, so elaborately fitted +up was it that he fought shy of letting any of his fellow Nihilists know +their new address. A table against one wall was piled with drawings, +while standing in a conspicuous corner on the floor were a drawing-board +and a huge portfolio--accessories of the role of a russified German +artist which he played before the janitor of the house. Before he let +her see it he had put a vase of fresh roses in the centre of the table. + +When he and Clara entered their new home, he said in French, with a +gallant gesture: + +"Madame, permit me to introduce you." + +He helped her off with her things and slid into the next room, where he +busied himself with the samovar. She had with her a fresh copy of the +_Will of the People_--a sixteen page publication of the size of the +average weekly printed on fine, smooth paper; so she took it up eagerly. +Its front page was in mourning for President Garfield. An editorial +notice signed by the revolutionary executive committee tendered an +expression of grief and sympathy to the bereaved republic, condemning in +vigorous language acts of violence in a land "where the free will of the +people determines not only the law but also the person of the ruler." +"In such a land," the Nihilist Executive Committee went on to explain, +"a deed of this sort is a manifestation of that spirit of despotism the +effacement of which in Russia is the aim of our movement. Violence is +not to be justified unless it be directed against violence." + +The declaration made an exceedingly pleasant impression on Clara. + +"Bravo! Bravo!" she called out to her husband, as she peered into the +inside pages of the paper. + +"What's the matter?" he asked her from the next room, distractedly, +choking with the smoke of his freshly lit samovar. + +She made no answer. The same issue of her party's organ devoted several +columns to the anti-Jewish riots. She began to read these with acute +misgivings, and, sure enough, they were permeated by a spirit of +anti-Semitism as puerile as it was heartless. A bitter sense of +resentment filled her heart. "As long as it does not concern the Jews +they have all the human sympathy and tact in the world," she thought. +"The moment there is a Jew in the case they become cruel, short-sighted +and stupid--everything that is bad and ridiculous." + +"What's that you said, Clanya?" Pavel demanded again. + +She had difficulty in answering him. "He is a Gentile after all," she +said to herself. "There is a strain of anti-Semitism in the best of +them." She was in despair. "What is to be done, then?" she asked +herself. "Is there no way out of it?" The answer was: "I will bear the +cross," and once again the formula had a soothing effect on her frame of +mind. And because it had, the cross gradually ceased to be a cross. + +She warmed to her husband with a sense of her own forgiveness, of the +sacrifices she was making. She felt a new glow of tenderness for him. +And then, by degrees, things appeared in milder light. Pavel's rapture +over her was so genuine, his devotion so profound, and the general +relations between Jew and Gentile in the movement were marked by +intimacies and attachments so sincere, that the anti-Semitic article +could not have sprung from any personal taste or sentiment in the +author. It was evidently a mere matter of revolutionary theory. Justly +or unjustly, the fact was there: in the popular mind the Jews +represented the idea of economic oppression. Now, if the masses had +risen in arms against them, did not that mean that they were beginning +to attack those they considered their enemies? In the depth of her heart +there had always lurked some doubt as to whether the submissive, stolid +Russian masses had it in them ever to rise against anybody. Yet here +they had! Misguided or not, they had risen against an element of the +population which they were accustomed to regard as parasites. Was not +that the sign of revolutionary awakening she had fervently been praying +for? + +She went so far as to charge herself with relapsing into racial +predilections, with letting her feelings as a Jewess get the better of +her devotion to the cause of humanity. She was rapidly arguing herself +into the absurd, inhuman position into which her party had been put by +the editor of its official organ. + +And to prove to herself that her views were deep-rooted and unshakable, +she said to herself: "If they think in Miroslav I am the only person who +could restore harmony to their circle, I ought to go there and try to +persuade Elkin to give up those foolish notions of his." What they were +saying about her in that town flattered her vanity. The thought of +appearing in her revolutionary alma mater, in the teeth of the local +gendarmes and police, an "illegal" known to underground fame, was +irresistible. Her thirst of adventure in this connection was aroused to +the highest pitch. + + * * * * * + +At eight o'clock the next morning she sat in a chair, looking at her +husband, who was still in bed, sleeping peacefully. He had an early +appointment, but she could not bring herself to wake him. She was going +to do so a minute or two later, she pleaded with herself, and then they +would have tea together. The samovar was singing softly in the next +room. It was of her love and of her happiness it seemed to be singing. +Her joy in her honeymoon swelled her heart and rose to her throat. "I am +too happy," she thought. As she remembered her determination to go to +her native place, she added: "Yes, I am too happy, while Sophia is in +her grave and Hessia is pining away in her cell. I may be arrested at +any moment in Miroslav, but I am going to do my duty. I must keep Elkin +and the others from abandoning the revolution." + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +OMINOUS FOOTSTEPS. + + +Clara alighted from the train at a station immediately preceding +Miroslav. She was met by Olga, the girl with the short hair and sparse +teeth who was engaged to the judge, the two reaching the city partly on +a peasant's waggon, partly on foot. At sight of the familiar landscape +Clara seemed weird to herself. It was her own Miroslav, yet she was +worse than a stranger in it. She felt like a ghost visiting what was +once his home. On the other hand, the unmistakable evidences of the +recent riot contracted her heart with pain and brought back that +Reproach. + +Olga took her to a "conspiracy house." This was a basement in the +outskirts of the town, whose squatty windows faced the guardhouse of +military stores and commanded a distant view of the river. The only +other tenants of that courtyard were three sisters, all of them deaf and +in a state of semi-idiocy. The basement had been rented soon after +Clara's flight. It consisted of three rooms, all very meagrely +furnished. Lying under the sofa of the middle room was a wooden roller, +which had once been intended for a secret printing office. One of the +walls was hung with a disorderly pile of clothes of both sexes--the shed +disguises of passing conspirators. + +But very few members were allowed to visit her. Those who were saluted +her with admiring looks and generally treated her as a heroine, which +caressed her vanity most pleasantly. With a temerity born of an acquired +habit of danger, not unmixed with some bravado, Clara was burning to +visit her parents, her sister and her mother-in-law, and to take a look +at her native neighbourhood. Her friends made an effort to keep her +indoors. She would not be restrained, assuring them that she was going +to take good care of herself, but she finally offered to compromise on a +meeting with her sister, provided she brought her little girl with her. + +"I am crazy to see her," she said, meaning the child. + +"See little Ruchele! Why you _are_ crazy, Clara!" Olga declared. "If you +do all Miroslav will know the very next day that 'Aunt Clara' is in +town." + +"Nonsense. She won't know me. She has not seen me for more than a year. +Besides, I'll wear my veil. Oh, I must see her; don't oppose me, Olga, +dear." + + * * * * * + +The meeting took place on a secluded bit of lawn under a sky suffused +with the lingering gold of a dying sunset. And sure enough, Ruchele was +extremely shy of the lady in black. When Clara caught her in her arms +passionately she set up a scream so loud that her mother wrenched her +from her aunt's embrace for fear of attracting a crowd from a +neighboring lane. + + * * * * * + +A debate between Clara and Elkin was to take place in Orlovsky's house +the next evening. A few hours before the time set for the gathering +Clara received an unexpected call from Elkin. This was their first +meeting since her arrival, and she welcomed him with sincere cordiality. +She respected him as her first teacher of socialism. As to his love for +her, which could still be read in his eyes, it flattered her now. + +"Well," he said, trying to take a light tone, but betraying agitation. +"There is some news in town. Clara Yavner has been seen about." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that Clara Yavner has been seen about," he repeated with +sarcastic articulation. And by way of putting a period to the sentence, +he opened his lips into a lozenge-shaped sneer and leaned his head +against the mass of hung-up clothes under which he sat on an oblong +stool. + +She was seated on another tabouret, with her back to the low window. His +manner exasperated her. "But I have been out only once," she retorted +calmly, controlling her anger, "and then I was heavily veiled." + +"Well, could not some people have recognised you by your figure and +carriage? I am sure I could. At any rate your cousin, Vigdoroff, was to +see me a little while ago, for the express purpose of conveying this +message to you, Clara. The gossips of Cucumber Market are whispering +about your having been seen in town, 'and in addition to truths no end +of fibs are being told.' Your mother is quite uneasy about it, +and--well, Clara, at the risk of having it set down to a desire on my +part to slip out of the debate, I should suggest that you take no +further chances and leave Miroslav at once." + +"Oh, nonsense. Am I not safe in this basement at least?" + +"Yes, I think you are, but if the police should get wind of your +presence in town, why, they would not leave a stone unturned. They have +been itching for a chance to tone down their reputation for stupidity +ever since your disappearance." + +She smiled and frowned at once. + +"Besides," he went on, leaning back against the clothes and gazing at +the ceiling, "if that debate is your chief mission here I am willing to +capitulate in advance. You know I cannot debate with you, Clara. I am +still in your power. My brain is in a whirl in your presence. It is at +this moment. If that debate took place I should simply not know what I +was talking about. You would not wish me to make an exhibition of the +abject helplessness that comes over me when I see you, would you?" + +His words, uttered in monotonous accents, contrasted so sharply with the +air of mockery that had attended his former attempts at an avowal; they +sounded so forlornly simple, his spirit was so piteously broken that he +seemed a changed man. She was touched. + +"Don't speak like that," she said kindly. "I'll do as you say. I'll +leave Miroslav at once." + +"Is there absolutely no hope for me, Clara?" + +"I am no longer free, Elkin. I am a married woman," she said, flushing +violently. "Let us change the subject. Tell me something about your +Americans." + +He dropped his eyes, and after a rather long pause he said, blankly: + +"Well, pardon me, then. You have my best wishes, Clara. I say it from my +heart. I shall be your warmest friend as long as I live. I confess I +dreamed of your joining our party, so that I might be near you, and +hoped that some day you would become mine." + +"The right place for a revolutionist is here, in Russia, Elkin." + +"Nobody is going to try to persuade you to leave the movement," he said, +levelling a meek, longing look at her. "The Russian people act like wild +beasts toward our poor Jews, Clara; yet they and the Russian revolution +will ever be dear to our hearts. We appreciate that it is their +blindness which makes such brutes of them. We shall always think of +those who are in the fight here; we shall adore you; we shall worship +you, Clara; and perhaps, too, we shall be able to do something for +Russian liberty from there. But if you condemn us for joining the +emigrants, I wish to say this, that if you had been in Miroslav during +the riot you would perhaps take a more indulgent view of our step. So +many Jewish revolutionists have sacrificed their lives by 'going to the +people'--to the Russian people. It's about time some of us at least went +to our own people. They need us, Clara." + +"Look here, Elkin," she said with ardent emphasis, striving to deaden +the consciousness of his love-lorn look that was breaking her heart, +"you must not think I am so soulless as to take no interest in the +victims of those horrors, for I do. I do. I can assure you I do. I have +been continually discussing this question in my mind. I have studied it. +My heart is bleeding for our poor Jews, but even if it were solely a +question of saving the Jews, even then one's duty would be to work for +the revolution. How many Russian Jews could you transport to America and +Palestine? Surely not all the five million there are. The great majority +of them will stay here and be baited, and the only hope of these is a +liberated Russia. All history tells us that the salvation of the Jews +lies in liberty and in liberty only. England was the first country to +grant them the right to breathe because she was the first country where +the common people wrested rights for themselves. The French revolution +emancipated the Jews, and so it goes. If there were no parliamentary +governments in Western Europe, the Jews of Germany, Austria, or Belgium +would still be treated as they are in Russia. When Russia has some +freedom at least, her Jews, too, will be treated like human beings." + +"But we are not like the Palestinians, Clara. We don't propose to +estrange ourselves from the revolutionary movement. We shall support it +with American money, and we hope to fit out expeditions to rescue +important prisoners from Siberia, and to take them across the Pacific +Ocean to our commune." + +"Dreams!" she said, laughing good-naturedly. + +The discussion lasted about an hour longer. He had not the strength to +get up, and she had not the heart to cut him short. They listened to +each other's arguments with rapt attention, yet they were both aware of +the unspoken other discussion--on the pathos of his love--that went on +between them all the while they talked of the great exodus. + +And while she commiserated Elkin and felt flattered by her power over +him, her heart was full of yearning tenderness for her husband, of joy +in him and in her honeymoon with him. + +When Elkin rose from his seat at last he said: + +"By the way, I came near forgetting it--your cousin wants to see you." + +"Volodia? Volodia Vigdoroff? I thought he would dread to come near me." + +Time being short, the meeting was set for an early hour the very next +morning. Elkin had made his adieux, but he still lingered. There was an +extremely awkward stillness which was broken by the appearance of Olga. +Then he left. + +Disclosing the location, or, indeed, the existence, of a "conspiracy +house" to one uninitiated into underground life was impossible. +Accordingly, Vladimir was to meet Clara in a scanty pine grove near the +Nihilists' basement. On his way thither Vladimir was continually looking +over his shoulder, lest he was being followed by spies. He was flurried +and the sight of every policeman he met gave him a moment or two of +abject terror. But the part he had taken in the fight of the Defence +Guard had left him with a sense of his own potential courage; so he was +trying to live up to it by keeping this appointment with his "illegal" +cousin, whom he was so thirsting to see. That she was married he did not +know. He was going to persuade her to join his American party. At this +minute, in the high-strung state of his mind, the result of recent +experiences, he felt as though she were not merely his "second sister," +which is Russian for cousin, but a real one. His chief object for +seeking this interview, however, had been to celebrate his own +vindication. By her enthusiasm for the revolutionary movement from which +he stayed away she had formerly made him feel like a coward and a +nonentity; now, however, that in his judgment the riots plainly meant +the moral bankruptcy of that movement, so far at least as it concerned +revolutionists of Jewish blood, he mentally triumphed over her. + +The meeting had been fixed for an early hour. The air in the woods was +cold and piquant with the exhalations of young evergreens. The grass, +considerably yellowed and strewn with cones, was still beaded with dew, +save for a small outlet of the clearing which was being rapidly invaded +by the sun. + +They met with warm embraces and kisses. + +"Clara, my sister! If you only knew what we have gone through!" he said, +with the passion of heartfelt tragedy in his subdued voice. + +"How is uncle? How is auntie?" she asked with similar emotion. + +His kiss and embrace had left an odd sensation in him. He had never had +an occasion to kiss her before; and now that he had not seen her for +about a year the contact of his lips with the firm, though somewhat +faded, cheek of this interesting young woman had revealed to him what +seemed to be an unnatural and illicit fact that she was not a sister to +him, but--a woman. + +They seated themselves in a sunny spot. + +"Are you really going to America, Volodia?" she inquired with a familiar +smile, carefully hiding her grief. + +"I certainly am, and what is more, I want you to come along with us," he +answered, admiring her figure and the expression of her face as he had +never done before. "Oh, I am quite in earnest about it, Clara. You see, +the fist of the rioter has driven it home to me that I am a Jew. I must +go where my people go. Come, Clara, you have staked your life for the +Russians long enough, and how have they repaid you? Come and let us do +something for our own poor unfortunate Jews." + +She listened with the attention of one good-naturedly waiving a +discussion. + +"And what has become of that bridge you were building?" she asked. + +"And what has become of that gallows, of the martyr's scaffold, which +you said united Jew and Gentile? Has _that_ done anybody any good? As to +the bridge I was building across the chasm that divides us from the +Christians, I admit that it has been wrecked to splinters; wrecked +unmercifully by that same fist of the rioter. I dreamed of the +brotherhood of Jew and Gentile and that fist woke me. The only point of +contact between Jew and Gentile possible to-day is this"--pointing at a +scar slightly back of his ear, his badge of active service as a member +of the Defence Committee. + +"Why, did you get it in the riot?" she asked with a gesture of horror. + +"It's a trifle, of course. Others have been crippled for life, but such +as this bit of a scar is it will stand me in good stead as a reminder +that I am a Jew. The fact is now everlastingly engraven on my flesh. +There is no effacing it now. But joking aside, Clara, I love the Russian +people as much as I ever did. My heart breaks at the thought of leaving +Russia. I don't think the Russians themselves are capable of loving +their people as I do. But it can't be helped. There is an impassable +chasm between us." + +He was conscious of being on his mettle, as though the fiascoes he had +sustained in his last year's talks with her were being retrieved. As to +her, there was a look of curiosity and subtle condescension in her eye +as she listened. But she was thoroughly friendly and warm-hearted, so +for the moment he saw nothing but encouragement to his flow of +conversation. From time to time he would be seized with mortal fear lest +they should be pounced upon by gendarmes, but he never betrayed it. + +At one point, when he had put a question to her and paused, she said, +instead of answering it: + +"Really, Volodia, I somehow can't get it into my head that you are +actually going to America." + +"Oh, I am, I am. I am going to that land 'where one's wounded feelings +are sure of shelter.' Come along, Clara. Haven't you taken risks enough +in Russia? Come and serve your own people, your poor, trodden people. +Have not the riots been enough to open your eyes, Clara?" + +"As if those were the only riots there were," she returned, pensively. +"All humanity is in the hands of rioters." + +"But our homes are being destroyed, Clara," he urged in an impassioned +undertone. "Our people are being plundered, maimed, their every feeling +is outraged, their daughters are assaulted." + +"Is there anything new in that?" she asked, in the same pensive tone. +"Are not the masses robbed of the fruit of their toil? Are they not +maimed in the workshops or in the army? Are not their daughters reduced +to dishonour by their own misery and by the lust of the mighty? Are not +the cities full of human beings without a home? All Russia is +riot-ridden. The whole world, for that matter. The riots that you are +dwelling upon are only a detail. Do away with _the_ riot and all the +others will disappear of themselves." + +A note of animation came into her melancholy voice. + +"What you 'Americans' propose to do," she continued, "is to clasp a +handful of victims in your arms and to flee to America with them. Well, +I have no fault to find with you, Volodia. I wish you and your party +success. But the great, great bulk of victims, Gentiles as well as Jews, +remain here, and the rioters--the throne, the bureaucracy, the +drones--remain with them." + +She struck him as amazingly beautiful this morning and she seemed to +speak as one inspired. He listened to her with a feeling of reverence. + +"But you have done enough, Clara," he said when she finished. "You have +faced dangers enough. Sooner or later you will be taken, and then--" (he +threw up his hands sadly). "You have a perfect right to save your life +and liberty now." + +She shook her head. + +"You are a wonderful woman, Clara. By George, you are! Therefore, if you +are arrested, it will be a great loss not only to your relatives, but to +all the Jews. Haven't the Gentiles robbed us enough?" + +"Would you have them rob us of our sacred principles, too?" she +retorted, with a faint smile. "Indeed, the right to die for liberty is +the only right the government cannot take away from the Jew." + +"Come to America, Clara." + +"Oh, that's utterly impossible, Volodia," she answered, gazing at the +cones. + + * * * * * + +The discovery that Prince Boulatoff was prominently connected with the +underground movement, which originated in the confession of one of his +revolutionary pupils, had created considerable excitement in St. +Petersburg. The secret service had no difficulty in securing his +photograph, and when it was shown to the little man who had acted as an +errand boy at the celebrated cheese-shop he at once identified him as +one of those who dug the mine. That Pavel had recently been in Miroslav +was known to the whole town. Accordingly, the central political +detective office at St. Petersburg despatched several picked men there +to scent for his underground trail. These practically took the matter +out of the hands of the local gendarmes, whom they treated with +professional contempt. They gradually learned that Pavel had been a +frequent visitor at Orlovsky's house, and then they took to shadowing +Orlovsky and those in whose company he was seen. They made discovery +after discovery. + +One of these imported spies was the fellow who once shadowed Clara in +St. Petersburg--the tall man with the swinging arm and the stiff-looking +neck whom she met on the day when the revolutionist with the Greek name +was arrested. + +It was about 8 o'clock in the evening, some ten minutes before train +time, when this spy saw an uneducated Jewish woman in blue spectacles +crossing the square in front of the station. She seemed familiar to him, +yet not enough so to attract serious attention. + +It was Clara. Her disguise, in addition to the blue spectacles, +consisted of a heavy Jewish wig, partly covered by a black kerchief, and +an old-fashioned cloak. To spare her the risk of facing the gendarmes of +the station, her ticket had been bought for her by somebody else, her +intention being to slip into her car at the last moment. Having reached +the place too early, however, she was now trying to kill the interval by +sauntering about. This time the spy escaped her notice, but a little +later, less than a minute before the third bell was sounded and while +she was scurrying through the third class restaurant, she caught sight +of him, as he stood half leaning against the counter drowsily. + +Here he had a much better look at her. She certainly was familiar to +him, but he was still unable to locate her, and before he knew his own +mind he let her pass. It was not until the train had pulled out, and its +rear lights were rapidly sinking into the vast gloom of the night, that +it dawned upon him that she looked like the girl he used to spy upon in +St. Petersburg. Blue spectacles as a means of concealing one's identity +are quite a commonplace article, so he called himself names for not +having thought of it in time and hastened to telegraph to the gendarmes +at the next station to arrest the young woman, giving a description of +Clara's disguise and general appearance. + +Some three quarters of an hour later an answer came from the next +station that the train had been detained for a careful search, but that +no such woman could be found on it. + + * * * * * + +While that search was in progress Clara, her disguise removed, entered +the "conspiracy house," where Olga had been waiting for her, in case she +should have found it inconvenient to board the train. + +"There you are!" Olga said, in despair, as she beheld her friend's +smiling face in the doorway. "What has happened?" + +"It's a fizzle, that's all. But it might have been worse than that. +There is a St. Petersburg fellow at the station. He knows me." + +"Did he see you?" Olga demanded breathlessly. + +"I should say he did," Clara replied with another smile. "Well, I +thought it was all up. Gracious! didn't my feet grow weak under me. But +my star has not gone back on me yet, it seems. I got into one of the +cars just as the third bell was heard. I was sure he was close behind +me, but, when I turned around, looking for a seat, I saw he was not +there. He must have gone to another car for the moment, or something. +Anyhow, I tried to get out again. I thought I had nothing to lose, +and--here I am. But look here, Olya[E], are you sure there is nobody +outside?" + + [E] Diminutive of Olga. + +"I think I am," Olga answered firmly. "Why?" + +"I thought I saw a queer looking individual as I turned into this +street. I must have been mistaken. Still, I confess, the presence of +that fellow in this town is anything but a pleasant surprise to me. I +don't like it at all. I wonder why we have not heard from Masha about +him." + +The reason they had not heard from her was simply this, that the +invasion of the St. Petersburg detectives had had such an overbearing +effect on everybody in the local gendarmerie that her brother had become +unusually reticent on the affairs of his office even at home. + + * * * * * + +Two or three hours had passed, when Clara and Olga heard an ominous +confusion of footsteps in the vestibule. The next moment the room was +crowded with men, some in uniforms, others in citizens' clothes. One of +the St. Petersburg officers rushed to a window where a blue medicine +bottle--Clara's "window signal"--stood on the sill, to prevent either of +the two Nihilist girls from removing it by way of warning to their +friends. + +"You here!" the tall, baronial-looking procureur, Princess Chertogoff's +son-in-law, said to Olga, in amazement. He bowed to her most +chivalrously, but she turned away from him with a contemptuous gesture. + +"And may I ask for _your_ name, Miss," a gendarme officer accosted +Clara. + +"I decline to answer," she returned, simply. Her eyes were on a pistol +which she saw in the hand of one of the gendarmes. + +"You live in Miroslav, don't you?" + +Instead of answering this question she sprang at the man who held the +pistol, seized it from him and began firing at the wall. This was her +substitute for a removal of the safety signal from the window. + +The weapon was instantly knocked out of her hand by a blow with the flat +of a gleaming sword, and she was forced into a seat, two men holding her +tightly by the arms, while a third was tying a handkerchief around her +bleeding hand. + +"I merely wanted to alarm the neighbourhood," she said calmly. "But, of +course, you people will turn it into a case of armed resistance." + + * * * * * + +When Orlovsky learned of Clara's and Olga's arrest, one of his first +thoughts was about notifying Pavel, of whose relations toward Clara he +had by this time been informed. It appeared that the only man he knew +who had "underground" connections in the two capitals and was in a +position to communicate with Boulatoff was the former leader of the +Miroslav Circle, Elkin. This, however, did not stop Orlovsky. To Elkin +he went and explained the situation to him. + +"Elkin, darling, you know you are a soul of a fellow," he implored him. +"Pavel is either in St. Petersburg or in Moscow, and you are the only +man who could get at him." + +Elkin stood, thinking glumly, at the window for a few minutes, and then +said: + +"Very well, I am going." + +He started on the same day, accompanied by a spy. That evening Orlovsky, +the judge and several other members of the Miroslav Circle, were +arrested at Orlovsky's house, and a few days later news came from Moscow +that Pavel and Elkin had been taken in a cafe, while Makar had fallen +into a "trap" at the house of an old friend of Elkin's, who had been +seized several hours before. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +A MESSAGE THROUGH THE WALL. + + +Months had passed. Spring was three or four weeks old, but cell No. -- +on the first floor of the Trubetzkoy Bastion, Fortress of Peter and +Paul, had not yet tasted its caressing breath. It was a rather spacious, +high-ceiled vault, but being quite close to the stone fence outside, it +was practically without the range of sunshine and breeze. Its window, +which was high overhead, at the top of a sloping stretch of sill, sent +down twilight at noonday and left it in the grip of night two or three +hours after. The chill, damp air was laden with a stifling odour of +must. The lower part of the walls was covered with a thick layer of +mould which looked like a broad band of heavy tapestry of a +dark-greenish hue. + +The solitary inmate of this pit was walking back and forth diagonally, +from corner to corner. He wore a loose, shapeless cloak of coarse but +flimsy material, which he was continually wrapping about his slim, +emaciated figure. He was shivering. As he walked to and fro, his head +was for the most part thrown back, his eyes raised to the window, whose +sloping sill he could have scarcely touched with the tips of his +fingers. Now and then he paused and turned toward one of the walls, as +though listening for some sounds, and then, with an air of nerveless +disappointment, he would resume his walk. + +It was Pavel. + +The spy who accompanied Elkin from Miroslav to Moscow had shadowed him +in the ancient city until he saw him with Prince Boulatoff and then with +Makar and a university student, in whose room the four revolutionists +were arrested, shortly after, in the course of a heated debate between +Makar and Elkin on the riots and the question of emigration to America. + +During the first few weeks of Pavel's stay in the fortress the guards, +who had been converted to revolutionary sympathies by a celebrated +political prisoner named Nechayeff, had carried communications not only +from prisoner to prisoner, but also from them to the revolutionists at +large; so that the _Will of the People_ was at one time partly edited +from this fortress, and a bold plot was even planned by Nechayeff to +have the Czar locked up in a cell while he visited its cathedral. But +these relations between the guards and the revolutionists, which lasted +about a year, had finally been disclosed, and since then Pavel and the +inmates of the other cells had been treated with brutal stringency. + +Pavel's trial was not likely to take place for another year or two, +but his fate was clear to him: death, probably commuted to +life-imprisonment, which actually amounted to slow death in a spacious +grave like this vault, or in the mines of Siberia, was the usual doom of +men charged with "crimes" like his. His future yawned before him in the +form of a black, boundless cavern charged with dull, gnawing pain, like +the pain that was choking him at this moment. The worst part of his +torture was his solitude. The most inhuman physical suffering seemed +easier to bear than this speechless, endless, excruciatingly monotonous +solitude of his. "Oath-men" as the sworn-in attendants of the prison +were called (under-sized, comical looking fellows, most of them) came +into his cell three or four times a day--with food, or to put things to +rights hastily--but neither they nor the gendarmes who invariably +accompanied them ever answered his questions. One morning, in an excess +of self-commiseration and resentment at their stolid taciturnity, he had +spat in the face of a gendarme. He had done so, at the peril of being +flogged, in the hope of hearing him curse, at least; but the gendarme +merely wiped his bewhiskered face and went on watching the "oath-man" +silently. + +Whenever Pavel was taken out for his 15-minute walk in a secluded little +yard, which was once in two days, the sentinels he met would turn their +backs on him, lest he should see more faces than was absolutely +necessary. The warden and the prison doctor were the only human beings +whose voices he could hear, and these were brutally laconic and brutally +rude or ironical with him. To be taken to the prison office for an +examination by the procureur was the one diversion which the near future +held out to him; but then his near future might be a matter of weeks and +might be a matter of months. + +Back and forth he walked, at a spiritless, even pace, as monotonous as +his days of gloom and misery, as that dull pain which was ceaselessly +choking his throat and gnawing at his heart. At one moment he paused and +felt his gums with his fingers. Were they swollen? Was he developing +scurvy? Or was it mere imagination? He also passed his hand over his +cheeks, and it seemed to him that they were sunken a little more than +they had been the day before. But the great subject of his thoughts +to-day was his mother, and tantalising, heart-crushing thoughts they +were. Where was she? How was she? Was she alive at all? He pictured her +committing suicide because of his doom, and the cruel vision persisted. +And if she was not dead, her life was little better than death. He tried +to think of something else, but no, the appealing, reproachful image of +his mother, of his poor dear mother who had scarcely had a day of +happiness since she married, would not leave his mind. As a matter of +fact, his efforts to think of something else were scarcely sincere. He +would not shake that image out of his brain if he could. It was tearing +his heart to pieces, yet he would rather stand all these tortures than +shut his mother out of his thoughts. To talk to somebody was the only +thing that could have saved him from the terrible pang that was +harrowing him at this moment; but the chimes of the cathedral, which +played the quarter-hours as well as the hours, and the crash of iron +bolts at the opening of cells at meal-time were the only sounds that he +could expect to hear to-day. His heart was writhing within him. +Something was clutching at his brain. He seemed to feel himself going +mad. He was tempted to cry at the top of his voice; to cry like a wild +beast; but, of course, he was not going to give such satisfaction to the +enemy. + +He gazed at the sloping window-sill. For the thousandth time a desire +took hold of him to mount it and take a look through the glass; and for +the thousandth time he cast a hopeless glance at his bed, at the table, +the chair, the wash-stand: they were all nailed to the floor, a large +earthen water-cup and a salt-cellar made of lead being the only movable +things in his room. + +Four months ago there had been a prisoner in the adjoining cell with +whom he carried on long conversations by rapping out his words on the +wall, but one day their talk had been interrupted in the middle of a +sentence, after which that man had been removed. The cell had long +remained empty, as could be inferred from the fact that Pavel never +heard its door opened at meal-time. Since a week ago it had been +tenanted again, but all his attempts at conversation with his new +neighbour had so far been futile. His taps on the wall had been left +unanswered. + +Suddenly, as he was now pacing his floor, his heart melting with +homesickness and anguish at the thought of his mother, he heard a rapid +succession of fine, dry sounds on the right wall. He started, and, +breathless and flushed with excitement, he listened. "Who are you?" the +mould-grown wall demanded. + +Pavel cast a look at the peephole in the heavy door, and seeing no eye +in it, he took a turn or two up and down the room and stopped hard by +the wall, upon which he rapped out his reply: + +"Boulatoff. Who are you?" + +"The Emperor of all Africa," came the answer. + +"What?" Pavel asked in perplexity. "You have not finished your sentence, +what were you saying?" + +"Begone!" the wall returned. "How dare you doubt my title? I am the +Emperor of all Africa. How dare you speak to me? Away with you!" + +Pavel's heart sank. It was apparently some political prisoner who had +gone insane in a damp, cold, isolated cell. + +"Dear friend, dear comrade!" he implored. "Can't you try and remember +your name?" + +"Begone, or I'll order your arrest, mean slave that you are!" This was +followed by some incoherencies. Pavel went away from the wall with tears +in his eyes. + +In the afternoon of the third day he was striding to and fro, in +excellent spirits. He had been in this mood since he opened his eyes +that morning. Nothing but the most encouraging moments in the history of +his connection with the movement would come to his mind to-day. He felt +as though he and all his revolutionary friends were looking at each +other, and conversing mentally, all as cheerful and happy as he was now. +Everything pointed toward the speedy triumph of their cause. He beheld +barricades in the streets of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa; he saw the +red flag waving; he heard the Marseillaise. He recalled Makar's vision +of the time when victorious revolutionists would break into the fortress +of Peter and Paul and take its prisoners out to celebrate the advent of +liberty with the people. He thought of Clara, and his heart went out to +her and to their interrupted honeymoon; he imagined her on his arm +marching with others, he did not know whither, and whispering words of +love and exultation to her, and once more his heart leaped with joy. He +recalled jokes, comical situations. He felt like bursting into a roar of +merriment, when there came a shower of taps on the wall. + +"Who are you?" + +"Boulatoff," Pavel answered, with sadness in his heart. He expected +other absurdities from his insane neighbour. "And you?" + +"Bieliayeff. I am not well. But I feel much better to-day. My lucid +interval, perhaps. I remember everything." + +Pavel had met him two years before. They talked of themselves, of their +mutual friends, of the last news that had reached Bieliayeff through his +other wall. It appeared that Bieliayeff's neighbour on that side of his +cell was Elkin. + +Pavel received the information with a thrill of pleasure. He was going +to ask Bieliayeff to convey a message to his fellow townsman; but at +this he had an instinctive feeling that there was an eye at the peephole +and he dropped his hand to his side, pretending to be absorbed in +thought. + +They resumed their conversation a quarter of an hour later. + +"Tell Elkin I love him; he is dear to me," Pavel tapped out. "I feel +guilty and miserable. If it were not for me he would be in America now. +Besides, I have been unjust to him. This oppresses me more than anything +else." + +These communications through the wall are the most precious things life +has to offer in living graves like those of the fortress of Peter and +Paul. The inmate of such a grave will listen to the messages of his +neighbours with the most strenuous attention, with every faculty in his +possession, with every fibre of his being; and he will convey every word +of a long message as if reading it from a written memorandum. + +After a lapse of five or ten minutes Bieliayeff came back with Elkin's +answer. + +"He says he loves you," the tap-tap said, "and that it is he who ought +to apologise. It was he who was unjust. As to his American scheme, he is +happy to be here. It is sweet to be suffering for liberty, he says." + +Makar was at the other end of the same corridor, and a message from him +reached Pavel by way of a dozen walls. + +"Hello, old boy!" it said. "At last I have completed the revolutionary +programme I have been so long engaged upon. It's a dandy! It is not the +same I spoke to you about in Moscow. It covers every point beautifully. +It would save the party from every mistake it has ever made or is liable +to make." + + * * * * * + +One day Pavel learned that Clara had arrived in the fortress, after a +long confinement and no end of examinations in Miroslav. She was in +another part of the building and communicating with her was impossible. +Pavel scarcely ever thought of anything else. Could it be true that she +was in the building and he would not even have a chance to see her? He +was fidgeting and writhing like a bird in a cage. + +At last, on a morning, the wall brought him a message from her. It had +come through walls, floors and ceilings. + +"Clanya sends her love," it ran, "and tells him to keep away from the +damp walls as much as possible." + +"Tell Clanya I think of her day and night," he rapped back. + +Then a footstep sounded at his door, and with a heart swelling with +emotion he threw himself upon his bed and buried his face in his hands. + + +THE END. + + + * * * * * + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + +Most inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation found in the original +text were retained, including: + + "assistant procureur" and "assistant-procureur" + "ball-room" and "ball room" + "bedroom" and "bed-room" + "candlestick" and "candle-stick" + "capmaker" and "cap-maker" + "Catherine" and "Catharine" + "Chernishevsky" and "Chernyshevsky" + "cobblestones" and "cobble-stones" + "colour" and "color" + "drily" and "dryly" + "favourite" and "favorite" + "featherbeds" and "feather-beds" + "fiascos" and "fiascoes" + "footsteps" and "foot-steps" + "grey" and "gray" + "heartfelt" and "heart-felt" + "homebound" and "home-bound" + "laborer" and "labourer" + "market place" and "market-place" + "neighbour" and "neighbor" + "odour" and "odor" + "parlour" and "parlor" + "pedlar" and "peddlar" + "peephole" and "peep-hole" + "realise" and "realize" + "regime" and "regime" + "reverie" and "revery" + "Rodkevitch" and "Rodkevich" + "rumour" and "rumor" + "side whiskers" and "side-whiskers" + "stepchild" and "step-child" + "topboots" and "top-boots" + "tramcar" and "tram-car" + "trunkmaker" and "trunk-maker" + "undersized" and "under-sized" + "Vice-Emperor" and "vice-Emperor" + "wagons" and "waggons" + "waiting room" and "waiting-room" + "woolen" and "woollen" + + +The following corrections were made to the text: + + Page 5: "ma chere" changed to "ma chere" + (Don't take it ill, _ma chere_." She) + Page 8: "Czarowitch" changed to "Czarowitz" + (the present Czar, then still Czarowitz,) + Page 15: "waistcoast" changed to "waistcoat" + (pulling at his waistcoat as though) + Page 16: "ecstacy" changed to "ecstasy" + (and in his ecstasy over) + Page 23: "Medicis" changed to "Medici" + (Venus de Medici--and the) + Page 34: added missing end quote + (essence?" For the) + Page 36: "Alexander" changed to "Alexandre" + (who saw Alexandre Alexandrovich off) + Page 44: "myterious" changed to "mysterious" + (mysterious air of the "radicals") + Page 44: added missing exclamation mark + (number of _Forward!_ and another) + Page 47: added missing period + (nunnish face. She made quite) + Page 65: "idotic" changed to "idiotic" + (restrain the "idiotic breadth" of his) + Page 68: "a la" changed to "a la" + (trimmed whiskers a la Alexander II.,) + Page 95: "Alexandre" changed to "Alexander" + (on the part of Alexander II.) + Page 104: missing word "the" added + (beaming at the sight) + Page 104: "cosversation" changed to "conversation" + (in turning the conversation) + Page 114: "Vassilyevitch" changed to "Vassilyevich" + (Pavel Vassilyevich. Everything) + Page 130: "Paval" changed to "Pavel" + ("Exactly," Pavel assented,) + Page 137: added missing hyphen + (three-fourths of them) + Page 145: added missing end quote + (view of it." At this) + Page 146: "Judge" changed to "judge" + (Olga, the judge, and the ) + Page 151: "tete-a-tete" changed to "tete-a-tete" + (house for _tete-a-tete_ purposes.) + Page 163: removed extraneous comma + (imprisoned army officer slipped away) + Page 166: "surrounding" changed to "surroundings" + (Their immediate surroundings were) + Page 167: "minature" changed to "miniature" + (miniature garden between) + Page 186: added missing period + (well-travelled fellow. He can) + Page 215: extra quote mark deleted + (she says. You have a) + Page 219: "L'Assomoir" changed to "L'Assommoir" + (dwelt on Zola's _L'Assommoir_ and) + Page 231: "bood-bye" changed to "good-bye" + (a hurried good-bye and made for) + Page 242: added missing hyphen + (Meanwhile Count Loris-Melikoff had) + Page 248: "Littlie" changed to "Little" + (speak Little-Russian to Purring Cat,) + Page 248: "Littlie" changed to "Little" + (from Little Russia, answered) + Page 249: repeated word "the" deleted + (by the "gay bard," which Clara) + Page 252: "Lavadia" changed to "Livadia" + (still in Livadia with his bride,) + Page 254: "insistance" changed to "insistence" + (his heart with cruel insistence.) + Page 267: "Michail" changed to "Michail" + (residence, the Michail Palace,) + Page 275: added missing comma + (your fur cap," she gestured.) + Page 283: "street" changed to "Street" + (the Little Garden Street precinct had) + Page 286: "street" changed to "Street" + (Garden Street for the Czar's drive) + Page 288: "distinquished" changed to "distinguished" + (A distinguished revolutionary writer) + Page 289: "street" changed to "Street" + (cheese shop on Little Garden Street) + Page 294: added missing comma + ("Don't," he begged them,) + Page 305: removed extraneous comma + (the prison corridor answered his) + Page 326: changed end double quote to single quote + (such a cap?' says I.) + Page 333: "spokeman's" changed to "spokesman's" + (whispered in the spokesman's ear) + Page 335: changed period to colon + (Finally he shouted huskily:) + Page 366: "street" changed to "Street" + (near Nicholas Street, the best street) + Page 368: "street" changed to "Street" + (and about Nicholas Street and bore down) + Page 373: "market" changed to "Market" + (crowd on Cucumber Market,) + Page 374: "ran" changed to "run" + (of primitive humanity run) + Page 376: "street" changed to "Street" + (Nicholas Street, from a residence over) + Page 380: "maurauders" changed to "marauders" + (the marauders for the slashers) + Page 382: "banners" changed to "hammers" + (crowbars, hammers or axes) + Page 387: "stupour" changed to "stupor" + (revolting stupor of inebriety.) + Page 391: "sooth" changed to "soothe" + (trying to soothe an angry baby.) + Page 395: changed period to colon + (Hannah said, gravely:) + Page 403: "street" changed to "Street" + (Street, St. Petersburg, was in Moscow) + Page 415: added missing period + (in a sunny spot.) + Page 420: added missing period + (There is a St. Petersburg) + Page 425: "access" changed to "excess" + (One morning in an excess) + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The White Terror and The Red, by Abraham Cahan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE TERROR AND THE RED *** + +***** This file should be named 39166.txt or 39166.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/1/6/39166/ + +Produced by Rosanna Murphy, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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