Idle Ideas in 1905 by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
page 90 of 189 (47%)
page 90 of 189 (47%)
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It did cost them a pretty penny. Some half a dozen policemen were
round about before as many minutes had elapsed, and each one claimed his bribe. Then they wished both combatants good-night, and trooped out evidently in great good humour and the two gentlemen, with wet napkins round their heads, sat down again, and laughter and amicable conversation flowed freely as before. They strike the stranger as a childlike people, but you are possessed with a haunting sense of ugly traits beneath. The workers--slaves it would be almost more correct to call them--allow themselves to be exploited with the uncomplaining patience of intelligent animals. Yet every educated Russian you talk to on the subject knows that revolution is coming. But he talks to you about it with the door shut, for no man in Russia can be sure that his own servants are not police spies. I was discussing politics with a Russian official one evening in his study when his old housekeeper entered the room--a soft-eyed grey-haired woman who had been in his service over eight years, and whose position in the household was almost that of a friend. He stopped abruptly and changed the conversation. So soon as the door was closed behind her again, he explained himself. "It is better to chat upon such matters when one is quite alone," he laughed. "But surely you can trust her," I said, "She appears to be devoted to you all." "It is safer to trust no one," he answered. And then he continued |
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