Red Fleece

lt strange and young beside them. The woman seemed to belong to this world, and it was a world at war with every existing power. All Peter's training resisted stubbornly. Still, right or wro

e fire somehow. He loved Berthe Solwicz, could have made

f the angular and weathered neck. No rest could exist in the room that contained such loneliness as burned from his eyes. It was said that he had been rich, though everything about him was poor now. One would suspect the articles in his pockets to be meager and of poor quality-the things you might find in a peasant's coat. That which he called home was a peasant's house in the Bosk hills-the house of the plowman of Liaoy

allied with England," said Fallows. "I mean Russia. You see,

ed traces of his ten years' training among simple men. Rhetoric and dithyramb were gone from his speech a

them, taught them to grasp instead of to give, to look down instead of up. We have even stolen from them the fruits of their looking down. The time is near at hand when we shall ha

d the face of the woman as he spoke.

I know this: They might be led to virtue, instead of to wickedness. My heart bleeds for them being led to slaughter again. The hard thing is to make them see, but the reason for that is simple, too. If they could see-they would not be ch

e the peasants see

themselves Fatherlands. I would have the peasants fathered by men who realize that the peasants are the strength and salt of the earth; men who realize that the plan of life is good-that the plan of life is for concord and service each

which the world moves-the slowness to a man who is ahead and trying to pull his people along. Moreover there was that final wisdom which Fallows revealed from time to time-momentary loss of the conviction that he himself was immortally right. Fallows saw, indeed,

ve been giving forth. You must forgive a man for so many words-w

-day-but everything you said ha

ed in tea-cups as in th

bear, such as th

es

Bear. It was perfect-in the bottom of the cup-standing up, walking like a man-huge paunch, t

ly. Mowbray turned hi

ts, tightly belted, very natty-more perfect than we see in the streets, as

speak until now. He was churning the bayonet around in the great pau

, red with firelight, seemed lost to all expression. "I

to die for what he believes, and another time when he's afra

o Mowbray. "It's a good omen. That's

es

re going out for th

y with Kohlvi

panese. Of course, war is the same. The nation at the end will win on the fields, not in the skies. The sky fulfillment is reserved for a better utility than war. But war belongs under the sea.... You

d?" Peter a

the wealth of the

f India rem

emains unde

her tenure in India with the Ja

I can see no philosophy u

nd Russia are enemies in

al and structural-ene

"You think that India would no

nderful in promise-a mind, a spirit. They could not raise in the village enough money to send him across the seas s

his intellect would not accept.... "Are you

hese are fearful and amazing days. We have all been in a kind of long feeding dream, like the

was si

re taking it in Amer

portunity for world

e said passionately. "Ther

of a young woman I once knew," he said. "Not that you look like her-but that you

im?" she sa

ll of us. We were changed. If it had not been a pure and durable thing-his courage would

who has passed on, and yet loves to study the lives and loves of younger men. Even to Mowbray

oes not know my name," Berthe said. "Bu

the big story of the war for The States. You will see great things-best of all with the Russian columns. There will be an Austerlitz every day-a Liaoyang every day. I was in Manch

for his cap. "I'll go out with you-just to ge

et, he left them abruptly, as i

be burning up

did not

ountain-so shockingly full of power," Peter add

when moments are biggest.... Oh, Pe

reat burning tha

es

st a reporter. But you have it.... My father loved his

love th

I lov

o-morrow! Don't come

characteristics of Fallows' mind, the same which he had admired and delighted in from Berthe. She had always talke

counsel martyrdoms for others if he wished. Death to Peter, however, was not strictly a conversational subject. If a man wer

r not, the exile had given up everything in life to make the world better as he saw it. He had written

moment of listening. He isn't afraid. He would die every day for it, if he could.... And I take things as I find

faced it. "If it happened to another pair, I should say it was the finish," he thought. "I should say that no man and woman could pass a rock like that.... I can't get to her point of view by thinking myself there. I'

and flung hims

leaving in thirty-six hou

dy," sai

have a

es

u think of

rong fo

ou look

g in that company. A fellow has to

don't mean to say you're g

threa

ou'd let anybody see your fires-not even

t were,"

p for him afterward. He lay very still, breathing easily, as the fag-end of the ni