OCR Text |
Show 1'0 'l‘lll'i ll\li'l( l‘i‘lli‘l'Sl' SPRING IN THE TRAIN little wind: the choruses oi the :oldiwiu l'.]lll1‘ from their trains as though it \H‘I‘i‘ tho \I i'\ \lew oi Fpi'iii'r iNVH‘ it sounded in the distanm- lilu- 21 had been fine, and then what clothes he had seen! But the City! He had been down into the City and was lost in admiration; he had also been lost in practical earnest and had appealed to one of the splendid policemen as to the Horinis‘hri liryvflitulm Hill'HiiS/Hl NM lo. 141 I'H'fl I'M/i lit , . . Bar . , . tins/iv] /in The bell rang. olliwvrs with nit-:11 pic»? in their hands came running: across the platform. We >\\‘IHILT on again throu'rh the green golden day. i b Andrey \Vassilicvitwh ol‘ eoiirw r-lmttvri d to us all. it was his way. and alter a wry liri: l' l'\}t1'l‘ll‘llt' t‘ til it one trained onoscll to regard it as an inevitable background , like the jerking and sniolw ol' the train. the dud. the shrill lins- sntn voices in the next (‘Hllll'ill'llllt'lll. thr- lilowin;r of paper to and fro in the mirridor. l wry Illlli'hl'V .imw-na that he was intensely conscious of X il<il in. who smirwlv throughout the day moved from his upper hunk. .\ndr(‘\' [\Vassi lioritcll handed him his tea. brought his moat pies and sandwiches from the station. and otter-ed hini III‘\\‘>p:lpr‘<. llt‘ did not, however. speak to him and l wa< aware that throughout that long day he was never once unconscious ol' himai llis chatter, which was always the most ll'l‘t‘I)I'(‘.~'>l lllC thin" in the world, had, perhaps, today SHIIH‘ (lll'fl‘lltm behind5 it. E01" the first time in my long ampiaintam-o with .\ndreV \ass1lievitch he interested me. 'l‘lH' little man was dis-a tressed by the heat and dirt : 1 iis fingers were always flickering about his clothes. lie was intensely polite to CVCTV one, especially to Trenchard, pavii in' him many complimentsV ‘ about England and the Eng lish. " I V x . i l he lung'lish were the only sportsmen" in the world. He had been once in London for a w 99k)' "3 ‘ lldd - raine ‘ d very much, but one afternoon it way to Holborn Viaduct, a name that he was quite unable to pronounce. This incident he told us several times. h'leanwhile . . . he hoped he might ask without offence . . . what was our Navy doing? "lily weren't our submarines as active as the German submarines? And in France . . . how many soldiers had we now? He did hope that he was not offending. . . . He spoke rapidly and indistinctly and much of his conversation Trenchard did not under- stand; he made some rather stupid replies and Marie Ivanovna laughed. She spoke English very well, with an accent that was charming. She had had, she said, an English nurse, and then an English governess. Of course they asked me many questions about the future. \Vould we be close to the Front? How many versts? \Vould there be plenty of work, and would we really see things? We wanted to be useful, no use going if we were not to be useful. How many Sisters were there then already? \Vere they "sympathetic"? Was Molozov, the head of the Otriad, an agreeable man? Was he kind, or would he be angry about simply nothing? Who would bandage and who would feed the villagers and who would bathe the soldiers? Were the officers of the Ninth Army pleasant to us? Where? Who? When? The day slipped away, the colours were drawn from the sky, the fields, the hills, the stars came out in their myriads, thickly clustered in ropes, and lakes and coils of light; the air was scented with thaw-rs. The second night passed. The greater part of the next day was spent in H , a |