th, "Yes! One gets used to it.
Dear, your hands are trembling. Do you think anyone can hurt you while
I'm here? You are nervous because you've been ill, that's all. This
is the first time you've been out and you are overtired. I'll take you
back soon. You were all right a few minutes ago. You thing of moods!"

She tried to smile, "I warned you, _mon ami_."

"I know. It wasn't any use. That wreath makes you look like the
statue of Ariadne in Rome."

"I wish you would talk to me about yourself."

"Myself!" Vardri shrugged expressively, "_Ma foi_!"

"Tell me what made you join the Cause."

"Because of a man I believed in. You have heard of Guerchouni who died
early in the year? There was a great funeral in Paris. It was in all
the papers."

Arithelli nodded, "Yes, I heard the men talking about it at one of the
meetings. I wasn't interested enough to listen then. Was he--?"

"He was one of our greatest leaders. His death meant something to me,
because it was really through him that I joined the Red Flag. He had a
life sentence in Eastern Siberia and he escaped from there and got to
America. For some time none of us knew exactly where he was, and then
we heard rumours that he was dangerously ill at Geneva. Then came news
of his death and his funeral in Paris. His friends had decided to
bring the body there, so that all the comrades might be present, for
there are many anarchists in Paris. They gave him a guard of honour of
Russian students, men and women surrounding the coffin with linked
hands, and there were hundreds of red roses and red carnations, though
it was in the winter--there had been snow on the ground a few days
before. There was a crown of thorns from those who had been his
companions in prison, and the canopy of the hearse was a red flag. If
only I could have been there to do him homage!

"There are all sorts of wild stories about his escape from Siberia. I
suppose he bewitched the jailers as he bewitched other men. He was the
first man I ever heard speak about the Cause. He came to Vienna and
held meetings for the propaganda and collected enormous crowds. I had
just begun to take life seriously then, to think about things and to
hate injustice.

"My father drank and wasted money and treated his servants brutally.
My mother was dead, and when she was alive she was an invalid, and
could do nothing. Most of the people I knew seemed to think the serfs
no better than animals.