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Show 36 'l‘lll‘l ll.\lll\' l"()ltl5H'l' SPRING IN THE TRAIN 3‘7 After she had left. me. I n‘alluwl all night and sang . . _ I be proud. was mad . . . I am mad now. I want to be-to be at my best here. Practical, you know i -like others. I don‘t want her to think me Gold understam." "I "No, exactly," I, said hurriedly, was creeping into the sky. A lark rose, triumphant. A pool amongst the reeds blazed like a brazen shield. The Spring day had {lung back her doors. I saw that suddenly 'l‘hat she should love me.' She, so beautiful, so pure. so \\‘Htltll‘l‘flll. have always laughed. Ah! l at whom women (Jud forgive me, my heart will *3 break As he spoke the heavy grey clouds of the first dawn were parting: and a faint very liquid l1l11e. :1ln1o<t white and verV cold. hovered above dim shapoless trees and fields. I flung open the corridor window and 11 sound of runningr water and the first notes of some sleepy hird met me. ‘ "And her family 5" l said. "Who are they, and Wili they not mind her marrying an l‘lnglislnnan f" "She has only a mother." he answered. "I faney that Marie has always had her own way." i "Yes," I thought to myself. "I also fancy that that is so." A sense of almost fatherly proteetion had developed In myself towards him. llow could he. who knew nothing at all of women, hope to manage that selfvwilled. eagef, independent girl { to him? \Vhy, why, why had she engaged herself I fancied that very possibly there were qualities in him~his very ehildishness and helplessness-WhiChJ if they only irritated an Englishman, would attraet a Russian. lame dogs find a warm home in Russia. But did she know anything about him? Would she not, in a week, he irritated by his incapacity? And he~he-h|ess his innocence l-was so confident as though he had been 111arried to her for years! "Look here 3" I said, moved by a sudden impulse. "Will you mind if, sometimes, I tell you things? I've been to the War before. It's a strange life. unlike anything you've ever known‘and Russians too are strange-especiallv at first} ou won‘t take it badly, if 7' i Hefmmhegm." arm with his hand while his whole face Was lighted With his smile. "Why, my dear fellow, I shall No one has ever thought me worth the bother. fatigue had leapt upon my friend. He tottered on his little seat, then his face, grey in the light, fell forward. I caught him in my arms, half carried, half led him into our little carriage, arranged him in the empty corner, and left him, fast, utterly fast, asleep. |