OCR Text |
Show 12:? THE DARK FORKS" And there are no secrets. NIKITIN 1‘33 "hat I tell you you mav tell denlv. like that crucifix on the hillock by the road that the the worldi-but I warn you that it. will neithe r int'erest them nor Will they believe it. . . . There is. you see. no sun has just touched. there is something more. .\nd now here we are nothing . . . two souls come together out of to my story. ~paee for an hour . . . and it (lut‘stlit matter what l say climax I have no story, indeed; like an old feldschar in my village who hates our village l'ope. ‘\\'hv, Georg (weorgeviteh. I say. ‘do you hate him? He is a worthv man.‘ ‘Your Honour.‘ he says, ‘there is nothing there; a fat man, but God has the rest of him~I hate him for his emptiness.' I'm in :1 humour to talk. I have, in a way, fulfilled the purpose that my English tutor created in me. I‘ve grown a sort of quiet skin. you know, but under that skin the heart pounds away. the veins swell to bursting. I‘m a fool behind it all-just a tool as every Russian is a tool with more in hand than he knows how to deal with. You don't. understand Russia. do you? No, and I don't and no 1.. you. except that it‘s true and the truth will be something tor \‘ou. Ilereis what I‘ve eome to the war with . . . my Imit- bit. ot' possession. it you like, that I‘ve brought with Me. as we've all brought something. \Vill you understand l know l'erhnps not. and it really doesn't matter. : . .' .i..:t l have. what l want, but not what I am. So how ~honld \‘ou know it l do not? .\nd 1 love lite. l lwlime in Iiwl. l \\'l.\ll to meet lleath. One can be serious without iv in: absurd at an early hour like this, when nothim: is mil exw‘pt >llt‘ll thing‘s. . . . .\ndrey \';1~silie\'iteli and Ir.) ~I lt' have puzzled you. have we not? I have seen you But we can all talk about her-and love her too, \xntrhin: us very seriously. as thou-3h we were tiunres In a if you like, although our sentinient's a bad thing in us. some say. But for us not to talk-for one of us to be silent --do you know how hard that is? . . . And through it all how I despise myself for wishing to tell tlieinl What busi- rmqel. :tllll that has amazed me, lweanw you must not. he one does. ness is it of theirs ‘? Then this war. Can. you conceive what it is doing to Russians? If you have loved RHSFIII i'III'l dreamed for her and had your dreams flung again and again to the ground and trampled on-and now, once more. the bubbles are in the sky, glittering, gleaming . . . do we not have to speak, do you think .7 Must it not be hard. when before we have not been able to be silent about women and vodka, to be silent now about the dearest wish of our heart 5 I‘I-rnn about us. You'll understand nothimi' about llnssian fl unto" \on laugh at it during at least halt the week. ".\l!no.~tin\e \‘tnrs‘ new I met .\rnlrey \';1~.<iliI-\it«'l1at". lle was an .n'ttllainttni'e otIIIItis house in l'ItI'I-gl'ml. ot' son." \enr~~ duration, but I hall rumbled llllll ln~.. rm- he set lllt'tl to me the l;t'~t kind or man whom in r «am- to know. l """l'l 1 hml been at thix time tiw .‘II'III‘t I" i" ll". l..tl :11.Il hml now :i LJIIIIIl l'Ixn-tnw- Mo to H- a ‘III'I'I'IIII‘ l x a w-mvmi man and l IIII' M" NH] H. h "WIN. m. it. I .,. r t‘t anoint lrr t"? it l'v l"" I l ‘ll M ii m. yin w n. rm.» r.,,- I!l‘~ mun .n'IiwI‘u {4. .ll l l llivII tl.l'. Ill. l.l l‘l 1‘ l ‘l‘li‘ I I. ll.v tlr'. ‘.‘.liIII Him l I llIIill‘l We have come out here, all of us, to see what we will that \ I have come because I want to get nearer to something-l had brought something in my heart about which I had learnt to be silent. ‘That is enoughl' I thought, ‘there can be nothing else about which I can wish to talk; but new: I‘lld' lt' 1'11» it li.I » ll.v iIlI.:. lir:.n~I lllIi-v-‘I Iir.‘ In, IIl‘ lil'I‘I‘IlIIIEI. 'lilml. "I ll'" ‘l' "‘H'lllnii l lit 1.»; a.» 4,l 1'..Il. -l.v iti:, i..3 1.. !- é. ‘- "Ni. a. I," stII II III" "I." ADI . ‘.-,l.tl|i:. I, l |