Pierre and Jean

his face, and he walked slowly, his stick under his arm and his hands behind his back. He was ill at ease, oppressed, out of heart, as one is after hearing unpleasant tidi

-one of those almost imperceptible wounds which we cannot lay a finger on, but which incommode u

ust as he was going in he reflected that he would meet friends there and acquaintances-people he would be obliged to talk to; and fierce repugnance surged up i

nd. He could not think of one, for being alone made him feel fractious, yet he could not bear to meet any one.

at down, tired already of walking and out of

d he began to search in his memory for what vexation had crossed

sensitive man always had the upper hand over the intellectual man. So he tried to discover what had induced this irascible mood, this craving to be moving without wanting an

tion to himself, "Can it

his heart beat a little faster. For, indeed, one is not always master of one's self

ose which the thinking man desires, aims at, and regards as right and wholesome, when he has risen superior to himself by the cultivation of his intellect. He tried to picture to himself the frame of mind of

t better, and glad to have understood, to have detecte

he would marry Mme. Rosemilly. And yet I am not in love myself with that priggish little goose, who is just the woman to disgust a man with good sen

d and coming in with the next high tide. Ships were due from Brazil, from La Plata, from Chili and Japan, two Danish brigs, a Norwegian schooner, and a Turkish steamship-which st

e. "But the Turks are a

the cliff to the uttermost horizon. Then, on the two piers, two more lights, the children of these giants, marked the entrance to the harbour; and far away on the other side of the Seine others were in sight, many others, steady or winking, flashing or revolving, opening and shutting like eyes-the eyes of the ports-yellow, red, and green, watching the night-wrapped sea covered with shi

ed in the night haze, small, close to shore or far away-white, red, and green, too. Most of them were motionless; some,

ine pharos lighted up in the heavens to guide the countless fleet of stars in the sky. Pie

shape. Leaning over the granite parapet, he saw that a fishing-boat had glided in, without the sound of a voice or the sp

ould but live on board that boat

ond, he saw a man sitting at t

Who was it? He went forward, curious to see the face of

s it you

What has bro

get some fres

egan t

h air." And Pierre sat d

y-isn'

es, lo

of voice that Jean had not l

nds of the earth, from the lands of great flowers and beautiful olive or copper coloured girls, the lands of humming-birds, of elephants, of roaming lions, of negro kings, from all the lands which are like fairy-t

d, he might go whither he listed, to find the fair-haired Swedes or the brown damsels of Havana. And then one of those involuntary flashes which were common with him, so sudden and s

He was standing up now. "I will leave you to dream of the future. I wan

ve come upon you this evening to tell you how pleased I am about

soft-hearted, w

od brother-thank

slow step, his stick under his a

ived of the company of the sea by his brother's presence. He had an inspiration. "I will go and take a g

en current among the indoor and outdoor patients and afterward among his neighbours. This reputation as a terrible conspirator, a nihilist, a regicide, a patriot ready for anything and everything, who had escaped death by a miracle, had bewitched Pierre Roland's lively and bold imagination; he had made friends with the old Pole, without, however, hav

fter dinner, for he liked Marowsko's calm look and rare spee

his legs stretched out and crossed, an old man, quite bald, with a large beak of a nose which, as a prolongation of his hairless forehead, gave him a melancholy likeness to a p

son, and looked like a shabby old cassock; and the man spoke with a strong Polish accent which gave the c

arowsko asked him: "Wh

hing as usual

ook very gay

ot ofte

hake that off. Will you

do not

o extract something from currants, of which only a sirup has been made hitherto-well,

ky gestures, always incomplete; he never quite stretched out his arm, nor quite put out his legs; nor made any broad and definite movemen

oction of sirups and liqueurs. "A good sirup or a good l

thout ever succeeding in floating one of them. Pierre

d placed on the mixing-board. Then the two men scrutini

by," Pierr

s old parrot-face bea

s lips, meditated, tasted aga

uite new in flavour. It i

? Well, I a

o call it "Extract of currants," or else "Fine Groseille" or "Groselia,

old man h

he doctor disputed the merit of this name, though it had originated with h

without a word under the solitary gas-lamp. At

ening. A friend of my father's, who is late

alf the inheritance. When the matter was clearly explained to him he appeared surprised and vexed; and to e

not loo

rvous irritation, wanted to know

look badly in the fact that his brother had

old man would not

equally to the two brothers, and I

and went to bed. For some time afterward he heard Jean moving softly about the