Then it is ready to take its place
in the general scheme. We Russians always begin at the wrong end,' he
said. 'We jump all the intermediate stages. I'm as bad as the rest.' I
know you'll say I'm so easily impressed, Durward, but he was wonderful
that night--and so _right_. So that as he talked I just longed to rush
back and see that my village--Topright in Wiltshire--was safe and sound
with the highgate at the end of the village street, and the village
stores with the lollipop windows, and the green with the sheep on it,
and the ruddy stream with the small trout and the high Down beyond....
Oh well, you know what I mean--"
"I know," said I.
"I saw that the point of Markovitch was that he must have some ideal to
live up to. If he couldn't have Vera he'd have Russia, and if he
couldn't have Russia he'd have his inventions. When we first came along
a month or two ago he'd lost Russia, he was losing Vera, and he wasn't
very sure about his inventions. A bad time for the old boy, and you were
quite right to tell me to look after him. Then came the Revolution, and
he thought that everything was saved.
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