understood, and what he saw
was senseless, horrible, and irreparable!... The dead man would
never know!"

The poignant irony of this story is not unusual with Andreyev.

It is again found in the short and symbolic story "The Laugh." A
student, profiting by the fact that it is carnival time, disguises
himself as a Chinaman and goes to the house of the girl he loves.
The mute, immobile, and stupidly calm mask, and the whole "get-up"
are so funny, that the unfortunate man rouses irresistible laughter
wherever he goes. The young girl cannot help herself, and, while
listening to his very touching and sincere declaration, which, at
any other time, would have brought tears to her eyes, she bursts out
laughing and cannot again become serious, although she realizes that
a living and unhappy being is hidden under this impassive and
foolish Chinaman's mask.

* * * * *

In "The Lie" we see a man who, by isolating himself from life, has
lost the feeling of reality, and all capacity of discerning the true
from the false. He suffers terribly from the feeling that something
unknown is happening around him. This man, who would be ready to
sacrifice everything, even his life, in order to know truth, guesses
the lie that comes between him and the person who is dearest to him.
He falls into a despair that soon turns to fury. In order to recover
his calm, he begs the girl he loves, whom he suspects of having
deceived him, to reveal the whole truth to him. But he cannot
believe her protestations of innocence. One word bursts from his
being, breaks forth from the depths of his soul: "Lies! Lies! Lies
everywhere!"

"In looking at her beautiful pure forehead," he writes, "I dreamed
that truth was there, on the other side of that thin barrier, and I
felt a senseless desire to break that barrier and at least to see
the truth. Lower down, beneath her white breast, I heard the beating
of her heart, and I had a mad desire to open her breast so that I
could read, at least once, what there was at the bottom of her
heart."

He ends by killing that which he loved, and thinks that he is
satisfied: he believes he has killed the lie.

In "The Thought" we see the gradual development of insanity during
the period when it is doubtful, when the will is almost entirely
annihilated and replaced by a fixed idea, and when conscience is not
entirely abolished. Dr. Kerzhenzev kills his friend, obeying a
mental suggestion, w