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Show 11111 11.\l1‘1\' l-‘HTIlCST TH E FOREST were tensely strained. 1111 11111 hi< work with his eves fixed picture, a book, an experience ended and dismissed-something outside our present affairs. And yet I knew that 968 upon some impossihh- 111%.‘1111'1‘. he «1111111 11111 11111. hear us when we spoke to 111111. for me at any rate she was not outside them. 267 I felt as 1\1111 so 1110 three of us 11111111111 :1 kind of hedge about though at any moment she might enter the room. We dis- 111111111111‘1111101 111111. :1 111'I111‘Hli\\1111‘11 111‘ was111111111111qu cussed her aloofness, her sudden happiness and her sudden distress, her intimacics and withdrawals, Nikitin and Air drcy Vassilievitch slowly elaborating her into a high ro- inantic figure. Behind her, behind all our thoughts of her, there was the presence of Scniyonov. Nothing was stranger during our time here than the way that Seniyonov had conscious. 110 was wry >1111111 :11111 I would have given a great110111tohvaragain«111111111111M»(ih-heshiros1o1'iesthat l 11:111once1'ou1111 so 1ircso111e. 111:11 some plan or purpose was in his 11112111 one would 111111111111111. \Ve had. :111 (11‘ us. 11111111 111 common 111 our characters. always kept us company. "Ve liked the se1111111e111111 (‘£l.\'\' coloured view 111' life. We suddenly felt a strange 1111111111111 here 111 11115 place. For myself, on 11101111111 day. 1 1111111111 111111 .\l:1rie lvanovna was most strangely present wi111 111e, 111111 on the afternoon of that. day, our wounded 1111111 on 1111111' beds. our wagons sent Our consciousness of relief from him had begun it. We had been more under his influence than any of us had cared to confess and, in his presence, had checked our natural i111o the tent with 1111 prospect of 111eir return for several chard. hours. we sat together. Xikitin, Andrey Yassilievi1eh and I, could be explained only by the fact that he held him respon- looking out through a break 111 the garden towards the sible for Marie Ivanovna's death. Forest, and talked about her. thought to myself, "that Semyonov's not here." The weather was now very heavy-certainly a 11111111101-s1or111 was (waning. l was also weighted down by an intense desire for sleep, at the same 111110 knowing that 11' l were to 111ngn1ysell'o11 my bed sleep would not come to me. This is an experience that is not 11nusual at the Front, and oltieers have told me that in the middle of 11 11111110 when there comes a sudden lull, their longing for sleep has been so overpowering that 110 iniminent danger could lift it from their eyes. i \Ve sat there then and talked in low voices of Marie Ivanovna. 1 was aware of the buzzing of the flies, of the dull yellow light beyond the windows, of the Forest crouchlng a little as it seemed to me like a creature who CXpeCtS a blow. "'0 were all half asleep perhaps, the room dark bchlnd 11s, and we talked of her as we might talk of a impulses. I also was strongly aware of him through Tren- Trenchard seemed now to have a horror of him that "It's a good thing," 1 do, These hours of waiting, when there was nothing to remc111was bad for all our nerves. Upon this afternoon 1 all ber that after a time silence fell between 115. We were and places other of staring in front of us, seeing pictures Forother people. I was aware, as 1 always was, of the the est, seeing it shine with its sinister green haze, seeing their for waiting white bleached town, the huddled villagers the dark food, but seeing yet more vividly the deep silences, this hollows, the silent avenues of silver birch. Against It is were the figures of the people who were dear to 1110eternal ones strange how var selects and brings forward as company the one or two souls who have been of 11111'01'1'21"CC in one's life. One knows then, in those long", 10%" 111m". ening pauses, when the battle seems to 821111" 115011 to- |