ld be
wanted suddenly."

"Yes. It is very convenient from that point of view," I agreed.

In fact, I thought the Bastions a very convenient place, since the
girl did not think it prudent as yet to introduce that young man to
her mother. It was here, then, I thought, looking round at that plot of
ground of deplorable banality, that their acquaintance will begin and go
on in the exchange of generous indignations and of extreme sentiments,
too poignant, perhaps, for a non-Russian mind to conceive. I saw these
two, escaped out of four score of millions of human beings ground
between the upper and nether millstone, walking under these trees, their
young heads close together. Yes, an excellent place to stroll and talk
in. It even occurred to me, while we turned once more away from the wide
iron gates, that when tired they would have plenty of accommodation to
rest themselves. There was a quantity of tables and chairs displayed
between the restaurant chalet and the bandstand, a whole raft of painted
deals spread out under the trees. In the very middle of it I observed a
solitary Swiss couple, whose fate was made secure from the cradle to
the grave by the perfected mechanism of democratic institutions in a
republic that could almost be held in the palm of ones hand. The man,
colourlessly uncouth, was drinking beer out of a glittering glass; the
woman, rustic and placid, leaning back in the rough chair, gazed idly
around.

There is little logic to be expected on this earth, not only in the
matter of thought, but also of sentiment. I was surprised to discover
myself displeased with that unknown young man. A week had gone by since
they met. Was he callous, or shy, or very stupid? I could not make it
out.

"Do you think," I asked Miss Haldin, after we had gone some distance up
the great alley, "that Mr Razumov understood your intention?"

"Understood what I meant?" she wondered. "He was greatly moved. That
I know! In my own agitation I could see it. But I spoke distinctly. He
heard me; he seemed, indeed, to hang on my words..."

Unconsciously she had hastened her pace. Her utterance, too, became
quicker.

I waited a little before I observed thoughtfully--

"And yet he allowed all these days to pass."

"How can we tell what work he may have to do here? He is not an idler
travelling for his pleasure. His time may not be his own--nor yet his
thoughts, perhaps."

She slowed her pace suddenly, and in a lowered voice added--