Frank, courageous, Miss Haldin controlled her voice in the midst of her
trouble.
"What can this mean?" she asked, as if speaking to herself.
"It may mean that you have given yourself up to vain imaginings while I
have managed to remain amongst the truth of things and the realities of
life--our Russian life--such as they are."
"They are cruel," she murmured.
"And ugly. Don't forget that--and ugly. Look where you like. Look near
you, here abroad where you are, and then look back at home, whence you
came."
"One must look beyond the present." Her tone had an ardent conviction.
"The blind can do that best. I have had the misfortune to be born
clear-eyed. And if you only knew what strange things I have seen! What
amazing and unexpected apparitions!... But why talk of all this?"
"On the contrary, I want to talk of all this with you," she protested
with earnest serenity. The sombre humours of her brother's friend left
her unaffected, as though that bitterness, that suppressed anger, were
the signs of an indignant rectitude. She saw that he was not an ordinary
person, and perhaps she did not want him to be other than he appeared to
her trustful eyes. "Yes, with you especially," she insisted. "With you
of all the Russian people in the world...." A faint smile dwelt for
a moment on her lips.
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