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Show 62 THE DARK l'HlthS'l‘ obviously avoided the little man whenever it was possible. iliut then be avoided us all. ['pon a lovely afternoon Nikitin and l were alone in the wild little garden, he lyingr full lengt h on the grass. I reading a very ancient English newspaper, with my i back against a tree. lie looked up at me with a swift penetratin gr glance. as though he were seeingr me for the first time and would wish i i at once to weigh my character and abilities. "Your Englishman." he said. "lies not happy, I'm afraid." "No," I said, feelingY the surprise of his (pies. tion-it had bccome almost a tradition with me that he never spoke unless THE SCHOOL-HOUSE 63 tive people we do what we want to do, feel what we want to feel, and show quite frankly our feelings. He is not. what we expected, so that we prefer to fill our minds with things that do not give, us trouble. Later. like all Englishmen, he will dismiss us as savages, or, if he is of the intellectual kind, he will talk about our confusing subtleties and contradictions. But we are neither savages nor confusing. "'0 have simply a skin less than you. . . . "'0 are a very young people, a real and genuine Democraev, and we ea re for quite simple things, women, food, sleep, money, quite simply and without restraint. \Ve show our eagerness, our disgust. our disappointment, our amusement simply as the mood moves us. In Moscow they eat all day and are not ashamed. Why should they be? ln Kiev they think always about women and do not pretend otherwise . . . and so on. \Ve he were first spoken to. "He feels stran ge and a little lonely, perhaps . . . it‘s natural enough!" "Yes," repeated Nikitin, "it‘s natural enoug h. What have. of course, no sense of time, nor method, nor did he come for ?" system. "Oh, he'll be all right," I said hastily, "in a day or two." Nikitin lay on his back looking at tl 1e green, layer 11pm layer, light and dark, with golden fragments of broken light leaping in the breeze from branch to branch. "Wit" did he come? \Vliat did he expect to see? I know what he expected to sec~romantie Russia, roman tic war. it expected to find us, our hearts explo ding with lore, and." smile on our simple faces, God's simple, faith in our souls. . . . He has been told by his clevercst write rs that llussi-i is the last stronghold of God. And war? He, thought that he would be plunged into a scene of smok e and than". If we were to think of these things we would be compelled to use restraint and that would bother us. We may lose. the most important treasure in the world by not keeping an appointment . . . on the other hand we have kept our freedom. \Ve care for ideas for which you care nothing: in England but we have a sure suspieion of all eonclusions. \Ve are pessimists, one and till. kite cannot be good. \Ve ironically survey those who think that it can. . We give way always to life but when things are at. their worst then we are relieved and even happy. Here at. any rate we are on safe around. We have much sentiment, but it may, at any moment, give way to some other emotion. shrapnel, horror upon horror, danger upon dailffl‘" N" finds instead a country house, meals long" and large, 11" sounds of cannon. not even an aeroplane. 1Are we kind to him? Not at all. . . \Ve are not. unkind but we simply news. have other things we ourselves are weak. to think about, and because we are prina- We are therefore never to be relied upon, as friends, as enw mics. as anything- you please. l‘lxwpt thisfirthat in the lit-art of every llussian there is a passionate love of good We are tolerant to all evil, to all weakness lweauso We confess our weakness to any |
