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Show 174 TH [13 Ith'l‘ltICAT 'l‘lll‘i ll.\ltl\' I'HIIICS'l‘ his long dirty hand aeross the tablet or to 11J1\> food to oth~ ers. lle shouted a great thal and was in :1 l'uriou 11. »-.»-io:1 every tive 111i1111tes. l also just at this 11111.1 found the boy (iog‘a tiresome: the boy had not been taught hx lll.‘ parent", the duty that ehildreu owe to their 1'l1l1'1':- and l ;;111 ineliued to believe that this duty is almost universally untaueht in Russia. To Goga a (leneral was as nothing. he would eontradieti our old white-haired Heueral ill . when he ea111e, to dine with us. would patronise the t‘olonel and a~sure theGeueral's:1id1‘~tlt‘*1'11111p that he knew hotter. He would advance his father as a perpetual and faithful wit11e~< to the truth of his statements. "You may say what you like." he would cry to 111yselt' or :1 Sister, "but my father knows better than )‘011 do. lle has the front seat in the Moseow Opera all through the season and has been to linuland three times." Goga also had been onee to l‘lneland for a week (Spent entirely on the Brighton l'ierl and he told me 111:11'1y things. He would forget, for a moment. that l was an 1511alishman and would assure me that he knew better than i did. He was a being with the best heart in the world, but his parents loved him so much that they had neglected his education. l These things, may seem trilling‘ enough, but they had, nevertheless, their in'1porta11ee. Among the Sisters, Sister K was the unpopular one. I 111yself must honesth confess that she was a woman ill-suited to company less worthy than herself. She had an upright virtuous eharae- ter but she was narrow (a rare fault in a Russian), superstitious, dogmatieally religious, and entirely without tact. She quite honestly thought us a poor lot and would say to me: "I hope, Mr. Durward. you don't judge Russia by the Specimens you find here," and was, of course, always overheard. She was a strict moralist, but was also generous 175 with all the warmth of Russian generosity in money mat- ters. She was a 111arvellous hard worker, quite fearless, accurate, and punctual in all things. She fought incessant. battles with Anna l'etrovna, who hated her as warmly as it was in her quiet, unrutlled heart to hate any one. The only thing stranger than the fierceness of their quarrels was the suddenness of their conclusion. I remember that at dinner one day they fought a battle over the question of a elean towel with a heat and vigour that was Homeric. A (narter of an hour later l found them quietly talking toa large nether. Anna Petrovna was showing Sister K and hideous photogral'1h of her children. "How sympathetic l How beautiful I" said Sister K~--. "But I thought you hated her ?" I said afterwards in confusion to Anna Petrovna. "She was very sympathetic about my children," said Anna Petrovna placidly. rIhen, of course, Sister Sofia Antonovna, the sister with the red eyes, made trouble when she could. She was, as I discovered afterwards, a bitterly disappointed woman, having been deserted by her fiance only a week before her marriage. That had happened three years ago and she still loved him, so that she had her excuse for her View of the world. My friends seemed to me, during those first weeks at Mittovo, simply a company of good-hearted, ill-disciplined children. the nursery. I had gone directly back to my days in Restraint of any kind there was none, dis- cipline as to time or emotions was undreamed of, and with it all a Vitality, a warmth of heart, a sincerity and honesty that made that Otriad, perhaps, the most lovable company I have ever known. Russians are fond of sneering at themselves; for him who declares that he likes Russia and Rus sians they have either polite disbelief or gentle contempt. |