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Show 210 ll] 1C DARK FUIIICS'I‘ THE LOVERS woods would give the ctl'cet. of his fair heard and eyebrows. you'll flatter yourself that now at last one true picture has been given . . . but let me tell you that you'll never know His thick red lips were more startling than ever. curved as they usually were in cynical contempt of some foolish Vietim. llow he did despise us! When one of our childish quarrels arose at meal-times he would say nothing. but. would continue stolidly his serious business of eating. He was very fond of his food, which he ate in the greediest: manner. When the quarrel was subsiding. as it usually did. into the lirst glasses of tea, he would look up, watch us with his contemptuous blue eyes, laugh and say: "Well. and now( . . . Who is it next {"7 wind every one would he clumsily embarrassed. "Ye were often, as are all llussian companies, ridiculously amused about nothing. At the most serious crises we would, like (jayetf in "The ('herry Orchard," suddenly break into stupid bursts of laughter. quite aimless but with a great deal of sincerity. "hills: of laughter Would invade our table. "Oh, do look at Gog-a 1" some one would say, and there we anything really about us so long as you're a scntimcntalist l" Yes. there were moments when I hated him, but those moments never continued for long. For one thing one could not hate so magnificent, so honest. so uncomproinising, so efficient a workerl He was worthy of some very high position in the army, and he could certainly have attained any height had he chosen. He had a genius for compelling other men to obey him, he was never perturbed by unexpected mischance. he paid no attention at all to what other people thought of him. and he seemed incapable of fatigue. 1 often wondered what he was doing here, why he had chosen so small an ()triad as ours in which to work, why he. stayed with us when he. so openly. despised us all. l'ntil the arrival of Marie lvanovna there was no answer to these (piestions-after that the answer was obvious enough. Again. one could not hate :1 man of his sterling independ- all were. perhaps for a quarter of an hour! Semyonov, strangely enough. shared this childish habit, and there was nothing odder than to see the man lose control of himself, ence of cha ‘actcr. double himself up, laugh until the tears ran down his face -simply at nothing at all! Inomcter goes up and down. The truth is that now I was very far from hating him. There were moments, certainly, when he was rude to the Sisters, when he was abominably greedy, when he was ruth- 211 \Ve were. all of us I think, emotionalists, of one kind or another. and went up and down in our tech ings. alliances. severanees. trusts and distrusts. us a theta We were good enough people in our way. but we were most certainly not "a strong lot." l'iven Nikitin. the best of the rest of us, was a dreamy idealist. far enough from life as it was and tllllit' unprepared to come down from his lll"‘illl|.\ and we things as they \verc. I-lut Semyonov nevn-r rclaxcd for an instant from his lessly selfish, when he poured scorn upon me; at such times .I thought him, as Trenchard has expressed it, a "beastly" man. He certainly had no great opinion of myself. "You position. He :rslwil no man‘s help nor advice. minded no inanis scorn. sought no Hl:II1‘.\ love. llurin;r my experience think yourself very clever, Ivan Andreieviteh. of him l saw him moved only once by an ovcrmasterirhr Yes, you think you're watching all of us and studying all our characters. And I suppose there'll be a book one day, another of those books by Englishmen about poor Russians~~~and emotion. and that \\';L~'. I'll t‘HIH'S". lll< lHVt‘ lint" \lut‘it‘ lvnir ovna. 'l‘hat. l believe. ,/f./ master him. but deep down, deep down. hi- kcpt his rebellions. his anxieties, his sur- |