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Show 58 THE DARK FOREST THE SCHOOL-HOUSE shaven to the skin. his white checks. protruding chin and long.r heavy white hands he resembled nothing so much as a large fish hanging on a nail at a tishmonc‘er's. llc worked always in a kind of cold desperate despair, his pinee-ncz slipping off his shiny nose. his mouth set grimly. "What is the use?" he seemed to say, "of helping those poor wounded soldiers when Russia is in such a desperate con dition? Tell me that 3" Or there was a. wild rough fellow from some town in Little Russia. a boy of the most primitive character, no manners at all and a heart of shining gold. 0f life he had the very wildest notions. He loved women and would sing Southern Russian songs about them. He had a strain of fantasy that continually surprised one. He liked fairy tales. He would say to me: "There's a tale, Ivan Andreievitch, about a princess who lived on a lake of glass. There 59 was a success. On the second day after ou‘ arrival at the schoolhouse there were continual exclamations: "But how charming the new Sisterl How sympathetic! . . . Have you talked to the new Sister t" Even Sister K , so serious and religious, approved. It was evident at once that Mario Ivanovna was, on her side, delighted with every one. I could see that at present she was assured that what she wanted from life would be granted to her. She gave herself, with complete confidence. to any one and every one, and, with that triumphing vitality that one felt in her from the first moment of meeting her, she carried all before her. In the hospital at Petrograd they had been, I gathered, "all serious and old,‘7 had treated her l fancy with some sternness. Here, at any rate, "serious and old" she would not find us. We welcomed, with joy, was a forest, you know, round the lake and all the trees were her youth. her enthusiasm, her happiness. of gold. The pond was guarded by three dwarfs. I myself. Ivan Andreievitch, have seen a dwarf in Kiev no higher Seniyonov, who never disguised nor restrained his feel- ings, was, from the first instant, strangely attracted to her. She. I could see, liked him. very much, felt in him his than your leg, and in our town they say there was once a whole family of dwarfs who lived in a house in the chief street in our town and sold potatoes. . . . I don't know. . . . People tell one such things. But for the rest of that tale, do you remember how it goes 3" He could ride any horse, carry any man, was never tired nor out of heart. He had the vaguest ideas about the war. "I knew a German once in our town," he told me. "I always hated him. . . . He was going to Petrog‘rad to make his fortune. I hope he's dead." This fellow was called Petr-0v. My chief interest during this fortnight was to watch the fortunes of Marie Ivanovna and Trenchard with their new companions. It was instantly apparent that Marie Ivanovna strength and capacity and scorn of others. Molozov also yielded her his instant admiration. Ilc always avoided any close personal relationship with any of us but I could see that he was delighted with her vitality and energy. Sho pleased the older Sisters by her frank and quite honest desire to be told things and the younger Sisters by her "‘l‘INHN honest admiration of their gifts and qualities. She was; honest and sincere, I do believe, in every Word and thought and action. She had, in many ways, the train- l‘UI'ity. the unconsidercd faith and contidcnce of a child still in the nursery. She amazed me sometimes by her ieno rance: she delighted me frequently by her refreshing truth and straightforwardm-ss. She felt a little, I think, that l |