never was satisfied with the plain meaning of what was said, but
tried to give the words every other possible meaning. Every chance
remark she happened to overhear she took to be meant for herself.
Well, this same sensitiveness one may find in most of the
Cantonists. For instance, in the regiment of General Luders, in
which I served once, we had many Tatars, some Karaites, and a goodly
number of Jews. To all appearances there was no trouble; but let
one soldier call another "Antichrist," and every Jew in the regiment
would get excited. The Tatars and the Karaites rather liked to call
their comrades Antichrist, even if they happened to be Christians.
But it was only the Jews whom the word set a-shivering. It is as I
tell you--the Jew is painfully sensitive. Well, to cut my story
short, Anna did not have a happy time of it. She was all alone,
surrounded though she was by many people. She became taciturn in
spite of herself. And this is a great misfortune when it happens
with womenfolk. Women are naturally great talkers, and you may do
them much harm, if you do not give them a chance to talk. So I
became her crony as soon as I discovered her secret. Then she tried
to make up for the many years of silence by chattering incessantly.
In her long talks she often said things she had denied before. Once
she told me that she felt a longing to see her relations and
townspeople. But the next time she said that she hated them
mightily. Very likely she did not hate them. We all dislike that
which has caused us pain and harm. So Anna disliked her relations
for having caused her remorse, homesickness, and perhaps shame.
Once her tongue was loosed, she did not stop until she had poured
out the proverbial nine measures given to woman as her share of the
ten measures of speech in the world. She spoke Yiddish even in the
presence of Marusya and of Jacob, who used to visit me once in a
while. By and by Anna began to treat him in a very friendly way.