The policeman, enormous under his high coat, the sure and confident
guardian of that silent world, came slowly towards me, and I turned away
home.
VI
The next day, Sunday, I have always called in my mind Nina's day, and so
I propose to deal with it here, describing it as far as possible from
her point of view and placing her in the centre of the picture.
The great fact about Nina, at the end, when everything has been said,
must always be her youth. That Russian youthfulness is something that no
Western people can ever know, because no Western people are accustomed,
from their very babyhood, to bathe in an atmosphere that deals only with
ideas.
In no Russian family is the attempt to prevent children from knowing
what life really is maintained for long; the spontaneous impetuosity of
the parents breaks it down. Nevertheless the Russian boy and girl, when
they come to the awkward age, have not the least idea of what life
really is. Dear me, no! They possess simply a bundle of incoherent
ideas, untested, ill-digested, but a wonderful basis for incessant
conversation. Experience comes, of course, and for the most part it is
unhappy experience.
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