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Show 5316 Tlll‘i HANK l-‘(HIICS'I‘ insisting that they are illusions. TH E LOVE HS I would not distnrh your romantic happiness tor the world." i "don cant disturh me. Alexei l'etroriteli," Nikitin answered sleepily. "What a hot moraine!" "No," said Semyonov. "I' would he very wrong to dis- turh you. lielieye me. I've never tried. it's very agree,ahle to me to see you and Mr. so happy together and it must he pleasant for both ot‘ you to ‘l'eel that you‘re not a nice God all of your own who sleeps :1 good deal huti‘still on the whole, gives you what you want. \Ve. may wonder: a little what Mr. has done to he so ta\‘(‘Iiii'etl-iie\'ei‘ yerv m-ueh I faney-hut still I like the friendliness and eoinloiit ot it and .l‘m really lueky to haye the good fortune of your acquaintance. So nice for ,liussia too to have. plenty of people ahout who don‘t do any work nor take any trduhle about anything because they‘ve not: a niee fat that "who‘ll do it all for them it they‘ll only he patient. That's why we're heatingr the Germans so handsrnnely"the poor Germans. who QC" only a", ia'nor ant h eathen L ' s‘ as ‘ ' the) are, ‘ helim ' ' e in . them- « - X k ;He looked at us all with a friendly patronising Contempt, That's your DOint Of View, Alexei l'etroYiteh," Nikitin answered rather ht'tlf- "Think as you please of course. But there's more in life than you can [seeathere is indeed." 1 "Of course there is," said Semyonov lazily, "mueh more. lni an ignorant, rough man. I like things as they are findnriake the best of them, so, of course, l'm not clever. M1215 clever, aren't 5'0": Mix? All the same he doesn‘t 217 really rouse your God and ask llim to do something sensi ble-~smnething with method in it and a few more bullets in it and a little more eltieieney in it. You. might ask Him to do what He can. . . ." He looked at us, laughing; then he said to 'l‘renehard, " :lnt don't you fear, Mr. You'll go to heaven all right. Even though. it's the wise men who succeed in this world, i don't doubt it's the fools who have their way in the next." He left us. Semyonov was with every new day more ha [lied hy Marie lyanoyna. In the first place she quietly refused to ohey him. \Ve were now much oeeupied with the feeding;- of the peasants in a Village stricken with ehole'ra on the other side. of the river. A gloomy enough business it was and I shall have, very shortly, to speak of it in detail. For the moment it is 011011in to say that two of us went o‘li‘ every morning with a kitchen on wheels, (listrilmtied the food, and returned in the afternoon. Semyonov intensely disliked Marie Ivai'ioyna's share in this work, but he could not, of eonrse, ohjeet to her taking, with the other Sisters, the risks and unpleasantness of it. He made, whenever it was possihle, ohjefitions, found her work at. the hospital where he himselt was. oeeupiml her in eyery [IUSthltf way. lint he did this against her will. She seemed to lind a very espeeial phasure and exeitenlent in the eholera work; she wished otten to take the plat-e of some other Sister. lndeod M'ery‘ boots on better and knew less about 05d he min-ht he of thin-J on the other side of the river seemed to have a great lamination for her. She l1(,‘t‘<("ll" told me: "'l‘he moment, 1 eross the hridg'o [ feel as though I were on enehanted more use at‘the Front, perhaps. erouiid." know how to put his boots on properly. If he put his That's Only my idea, and I duresay I'm wrong. . . All the same, for the sake of the COLUfOI‘t and the pockets of all of us I do hope you'll ()n the oeeasions when l aeeonil‘uinied her to the eholera \‘illau'e she was radiant, so happy that she seemed to tune nothing further in the world to desire. She herself |
