chool learning if not exactly knowledge; of good
manners if not good breeding; the new faith raised them in their own
eyes, declaring that they were the salt of the earth, that they alone
were useful and important parts of humanity; all others who did not
labor with their hands being miserable and contemptible sponges on
humanity.

The whole proletariat was soon converted to Social Democracy. Berlin
was covered with a network of societies, which became the places of
worship of the new faith. Handbills, pamphlets, newspapers, partly
polemical, partly literary, in which the mob made their statements and
professed their faith stoutly; these, although written very badly, yet
by their monotony, their angry reproaches, their invocations, reminded
one of litanies and psalms.

Wilhelm felt a certain sympathy with the movement. It was first brought
to his notice by a new acquaintance, who had worked with him in the
physical laboratory since the beginning of the year. He was a Russian,
who had introduced himself to the pupils in the laboratory as Dr.
Barinskoi from Charkow. His appearance and, behavior hardly bore this
out. His long thin figure was loosely joined to thin weak legs. Light
blue eyes looked keenly out of a warm grayish-yellow face; add to these
a sharp reddish nose, pale lips, a spare, badly grown mustache and
beard of a dirty color, and slight baldness. His demeanor was suave and
very submissive, his voice had the faltering persuasiveness which a
natural and reasonable man dislikes, because it warns him that the
speaker is lying in wait to take him by surprise. Barinskoi, beside,
never stood upright when he was speaking to any one. He bent his back,
his head hung forward, his eyes shifted their glance from the points of
his own boots to other people's, his face was crumpled up into a
smiling mask, and working his hands about nervously he crammed so many
polite phrases and compliments into his conversation that he was a
terrible bore to all his acquaintances. Barinskoi, who was an
accomplished spy, intended by his entrance into the laboratory to learn
all he could in a circuitous way of persons and conditions.

After a short observation he noticed that Wilhelm seemed isolated in
the midst of the others, and was treated coldly by every one except the
professor. He learned that this coolness of the atmosphere was on
account of the refusal of the duel. After that he tried every possible
means to get nearer to him. W