your people,
living in a bit of an island which could be pinched out of Russia and
never missed, are colonizing half the world; how they go in ships to
explore the polar seas, have penetrated Africa in all directions as
travellers, go among the wildest people as missionaries. We are brought
up to have everything done for us: to think as we are told to think, to
have officials keep their eyes over us at every turn, to be punished if
we dare to think independently, till we have come to be a nation of
grown-up children. You are only a boy, if you will forgive my calling
you so, and yet you talk about facing the most horrible dangers as
coolly as if you were proposing going for a promenade on the Nevski. We
won't talk any more about it now, for you have made me feel quite
restless. There, you have been here two hours, and I have forgotten all
my duties as host, and have not even offered you a cup of tea; it is
shameful." And Alexis brought out a samovar and soon had water boiling
and tea made.

After they had drunk it they went out of the hut, and Godfrey was
introduced to the other exiles. Two of them who lived together were
quite old men; they had been professors at the University of Kieff, and
were exiled for having in their lectures taught what were considered
pernicious doctrines. There were three military and two naval officers,
a noble, another doctor, and two sons of merchants. All received him
cordially, and Godfrey saw that in any other place the society would be
a pleasant one; but there was an air of settled melancholy in the
majority of the faces, while the sentry fifty yards away, and the high
prison wall behind, seemed ever in their minds.

By common consent, as it seemed, no allusion was ever made to politics.
They had all strong opinions, and had sacrificed everything for them,
but of what use to discuss matters the course of which they were
powerless to influence in the smallest degree. Free, there was probably
not one of them but would again have striven in one way or another to
bring about reforms, either by instructing the ignorant, rousing the
intelligent, or frightening the powerful. But here, with no hope of
returning, the whole thing was best forgotten. The past was dead to
them, and they were without a future. The news that Godfrey brought of
the blow that had been struck against the Czar roused them for a few
days. The war then was still being carried on. Others were wielding the
weapons they h