Next, as we drank a mixture of tea and honey, she inquired:

"Have you now ceased to be a student?"

"Yes."

"And why so? Through too much drink? "

"Even so, good mother."

"Dear me! Well, your face is familiar to me. Yes, I remember
that I noticed you in Sukhum when once you were arguing with the
barraque superintendent over the question of rations. As I did
so the thought occurred to me: 'Surely that bold young fellow
must have gone and spent his means on drink? Yes, that is how it
must be.'"

Then, as from her swollen lips she licked a drop of honey, she
again bent her blue eyes in the direction of the bush under
which the slumbering, newly-arrived Orlovian was couched.

"How will he live?" thoughtfully she said with a sigh--then
added:

"You have helped me, and I thank you. Yes, my thanks are yours,
though I cannot tell whether or not your assistance will have
helped HIM."

And, drinking the rest of her tea, she ate a morsel of bread,
then made the sign of the cross. And subsequently, as I was