say to one
another, 'How fervently his soul is glowing!' Aye, all the time that he
is holding his hand to his heart he will be dipping the other hand into
your pocket."

The lover of proverbs, for his part, unbuttoned his jacket, thrust his
hands under his coat-tails, and said in a loud voice:

"There is a saying that you can trust any wild beast, such as a fox or
a hedgehog or a toad, but not--"

"Quite so, dear sir. The common folk are exceedingly degenerate."

"Well, they are not developing as they ought to do."

"No, they are over-cramped," was the big peasant's rasped-out comment.
"They have no room for GROWTH."

"Yes, they DO grow, but only as regards beard and moustache, as a tree
grows to branch and sap."

With a glance at the purveyor of proverbs the old man assented by
remarking: "Yes, true it is that the common folk are cramped."
Whereafter he thrust a pinch of snuff into his nostrils, and threw back
his head in anticipation of the sneeze which failed to come. At length,
drawing a deep breath through his parted lips, he said as he measured
the peasant again with his eyes:

"My friend, you are of a sort calculated to last."

In answer the peasant nodded.

"SOME day," he remarked, "we shall get what we want."

In front of us now, was Kazan, with the pinnacles of its churches and
mosques piercing the blue sky, and looking like garlands of exotic
blooms. Around them lay the grey wall of the Kremlin, and above them
soared the grim Tower of Sumbek.

Here one and all were due to disembark.

I glanced towards the stern once more. The dark-browed woman was
breaking off morsels from a wheaten scone that was lying in her lap,
and saying as she did so:

"Presently we will have a cup of tea, and then keep together as far as
Christopol."

In response the young fellow edged nearer to her, and thoughtfully eyed
the large hands which, though inured to hard work, could also be very
gentle.

"I have been trodden upon," he said.

"Trodden upon by whom?"

"By all. And I am afraid of them."

"Why so?"

"Because I am."

Breathing upon a morsel of the scone, the woman offered it him with the
quiet words:

"You have had much to bear. Now, shall I tell you my history, or shall
we first have tea?"

* * * * *

On the bank there was now to be seen the frontage of the gay, wealthy
suburb of Uslon, with its brightly-dressed, rainbow-tinted women and
girls tripping through the str