him nothing, neither solace, nor peace, nor joy, and only roused in him
a vague, dreamy, morbid longing.

"Aha! You're up at last! it was about time," said Lialia, as she
entered the room.

Oppressed as he was by the sense of his uncertain position and by the
melancholy of the dying day, Yourii felt almost vexed by his sister's
gaiety and by her merry voice.

"What are you so pleased about?" he asked abruptly.

"Well, I never!" cried Lialia, wide-eyed, while she laughed again, just
as if her brother's question had reminded her of something particularly
amusing.

"Imagine your asking me why I am so pleased? You see, I am never bored.
I have no time for that sort of thing."

Then, in a graver tone, and evidently proud of her last remark, she
added.

"We live in such interesting times that it would really be a sin to
feel bored. I have got the workmen to teach, and then the library takes
up a lot of my time. While you were away, we started a popular library,
and it is going very well indeed."

At any other time this would have interested Yourii, but now something
made him indifferent. Lialia looked very serious, waiting, as a child
might wait, for her brother's praise. At last he managed to murmur.