another fifty years will have to go by before they are ready.'

"I left him very much perplexed. He was set free not long afterwards, in
virtue of some manifesto, and because there had been no disorders in our
town and he had not been the cause of any bloodshed. Soon after he came
out of prison my husband met him, and he said to my husband: 'I suppose
you will not shake hands with me?' And my husband replied: 'Because
our views are different there is no reason why both of us should not be
honest men,' and he shook hands with him."

The conversation now became a discussion about the various ideals of
various people and parties holding different political views. The large
lady kept on expressing the puzzled state of mind in which she was.

The whole conversation, of which I have given a very condensed report,
was spread over a long time, and often interrupted. Later they reached
the subject of political assassination, and the large lady said:--

"About two months after I came home that year, one day when I was out
driving with my daughter in a sledge the revolutionaries fired six shots
at us from revolvers. We were not hit, but one bullet went through the
coachman's cap. Ever since then I have had nervous fits and my daughter
has had St. Vitus' dance. We have to go to Moscow every year to be
treated. And it is so difficult. I don't know how to manage. When I am
at home I feel as if I ought to go, and when I am away I never have a
moment's peace, because I cannot help thinking the whole time that my
husband is in danger. A few weeks after they shot at us I met some of
the revolutionary party at a meeting, and I asked them why they had shot
at myself and my daughter. I could have understood it if they had shot
at my husband. But why at us? He said: 'When the wood is cut down, the