A hundred million of these children--ignorant, greedy, pathetic,
helpless, revengeful--let loose upon the world! Where were their
leaders? Who, indeed, would their leaders be? The sun sometimes broke
through for a moment, but the light that it threw on their faces only
made them more pallid, more death-like. They did not laugh nor joke as
our people at home would have done.... I believe that very few of them
had any idea why they were there....
Suddenly the word came down the lines to move forward. Very slowly,
wailing their little tune, they advanced.
But the morning was growing old and I must at once see Vera. I had made
up my mind, during the night, to do anything that lay in my power to
persuade Vera and Nina to leave their flat. The flat was the root of all
their trouble, there was something in its atmosphere, something gloomy
and ominous. They would be better at the other end of the town, or,
perhaps, over on the Vassily Ostrov. I would show Vera that it was a
fatal plan to have Semyonov to live with them (as in all probability she
herself knew well enough), and their leaving the flat was a very good
excuse for getting rid of him.
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