in a word, the applied philosophy of
chance, the indeterminateism of anarchy. Monstrous it may be, but grand
in its monstrosity.

"And you must note, that the man of action who was so despised by the
Countess, discovered in Bakounine the gigantic dreamer whom I have just
shown you, and his dream did not remain a dream, but began to be
realized. It was by the care of that organizer that the Nihilistic party
assumed a body; a party in which there is a little of everything, you
know; but on the whole, a formidable party, on account of the advanced
guard in true Nihilism, whose object is nothing less than to destroy the
Western world, to see it blossom from under the ruins of a general
dispersion, which is the last conception of modern Tartarism.

"I never saw Bakounine again, for the Countess's conquest would have
been too dearly bought by any attempt to act a comedy with this
_Old-Man-of-the-Mountains_. And besides that, after this visit, poor
Countess Satan appeared to me quite silly. Her famous Satanism was
nothing but the flicker of a spirit-lamp, after the general
conflagration of which the other had dreamt, and she had certainly shown
herself very silly, when she could not understand that prodigious
monster. And as she had seduced me, only by her intellect and her
perversity, I was disgusted as soon as she laid aside that mask. I left
her without telling her of my intention, and never saw her again,
either.

"No doubt they both took me for a spy from the _Third section of the
Imperial Chancellery_. In that case, they must have thought me very
strong to have resisted, and all I have to do is to look out, if any
affiliated members of their society recognize me!..."

III

Then he smiled, and turning to the waiter who had just come in, he said:
"Meanwhile, open us another bottle of champagne, and make the cork pop!
It will, at any rate, somewhat accustom us to the day when we shall all
be blown up with dynamite ourselves."

KIND GIRLS

Every Friday, regularly, at about eleven o'clock in the morning, he came
into the courtyard, put down his soft hat at his feet, struck a few
chords on his guitar and then began a ballad in his full, rich voice.
And soon at every window in the four sides of that dull, barrack-like
building, some girls appeared, one in an elegant dressing gown, another
in a little jacket, most of them with their breasts and arms bare, all
of them just out of bed, with their hair hastily t