"Well, thank God!" she would think.

And gradually the load in her heart would pass off, and she would
feel at ease. She would go back to bed thinking of Sasha, who lay
sound asleep in the next room, sometimes crying out in his sleep:

"I'll give it you! Get away! Shut up!"


ARIADNE

ON the deck of a steamer sailing from Odessa to Sevastopol, a rather
good-looking gentleman, with a little round beard, came up to me
to smoke, and said:

"Notice those Germans sitting near the shelter? Whenever Germans
or Englishmen get together, they talk about the crops, the price
of wool, or their personal affairs. But for some reason or other
when we Russians get together we never discuss anything but women
and abstract subjects--but especially women."

This gentleman's face was familiar to me already. We had returned
from abroad the evening before in the same train, and at Volotchisk
when the luggage was being examined by the Customs, I saw him
standing with a lady, his travelling companion, before a perfect
mountain of trunks and baskets filled with ladies' clothes, and I
noticed how embarrassed and downcast he was when he had to pay duty
on some piece of silk frippery, and his companion protested and
threatened to make a complaint. Afterwards, on the way to Odessa,
I saw him carrying little pies and oranges to the ladies' compartment.