And suddenly--as though at the wave of a magic wand--from all the heads, from all the faces, a thin shell of skin flew off, and instantly there was revealed the whiteness of skulls, the naked gums and cheek-bones dimpled like bluish lead. With horror did I watch those gums and cheek-bones moving and stirring,--those knobby, bony spheres turning this way and that, as they gleamed in the light of the lamps and candles, and smaller spheres--the spheres of the eyes bereft of sense--rolling in them. I dared not touch my own face, I dared not look at myself in a mirror. But the skulls continued to turn this way and that, as before.... And with the same clatter as before, the brisk tongues, flashing like red rags from behind the grinning teeth, murmured on, how wonderfully, how incomparably the immortal ... yes, the immortal songstress had executed her last trill! April, 1878. THE TOILER AND THE LAZY MAN A CONVERSATION THE TOILER Why dost thou bother us? What dost thou want? Thou art not one of us.... Go away! THE LAZY MAN[71] I am one of you, brethren! THE TOILER Nothing of the sort; thou art not one of us! What an invention! Just look at my hands. Dost thou see how dirty they are? And they stink of dung, and tar,--while thy hands are white. And of what do they smell? THE LAZY MAN--_offering his hands_ Smell. THE TOILER--_smelling the hands_ What's this? They seem to give off an odour of iron. THE LAZY MAN Iron it is. For the last six years I have worn fetters on them. THE TOILER And what was that for? THE LAZY MAN Because I was striving for your welfare, I wanted to liberate you, the coarse, uneducated people; I rebelled against your oppressors, I mutinied.... Well, and so they put me in prison. THE TOILER They put you in prison? It served you right for rebelling! _Two Years Later_ THE SAME TOILER TO ANOTHER TOILER Hearken, Piotra!... Dost remember one of those white-handed lazy men was talking to thee the summer before last? THE OTHER TOILER I remember.... What of it? FIRST TOILER They're going to hang him to-day, I hear; that's the order which has been issued. SECOND TOILER Has he kept on rebelling? FIRST TOILER He has. SECOND TOILER Yes.... Well, see here, brother Mitry: can't we get hold of a bit of that rope with which they are going to hang him? Folks say that that brings the greatest good luck to a house. FIRST TOILER Thou'rt right about that. We must try, brother Piotra. April, 1878. THE ROSE The last days of August.... Autumn had already come. The sun had set. A sudden, violent rain, without thunder and without lightning, had just swooped down upon our broad plain. The garden in front of the house burned and smoked, all flooded with the heat of sunset and the deluge of rain. She was sitting at a table in the drawing-room and staring with stubborn thoughtfulness into the garden, through the half-open door.