I started, looked more intently.... It was not a bird: it was a tiny, winged woman, clad in a long, close-fitting robe which billowed out at the bottom. She was all grey, the hue of mother-of-pearl; only the inner side of her wings glowed with a tender flush of scarlet, like a rose bursting into blossom; a garland of lilies-of-the-valley confined the scattered curls of her small, round head,--and two peacock feathers quivered amusingly, like the feelers of a butterfly, above the fair, rounded little forehead. She floated past a couple of times close to the ceiling: her tiny face was laughing; laughing also were her huge, black, luminous eyes. The merry playfulness of her capricious flight shivered their diamond rays. She held in her hand a long frond of a steppe flower--"Imperial sceptre"[72] the Russian folk call it; and it does, indeed, resemble a sceptre. As she flew rapidly above me she touched my head with that flower. I darted toward her.... But she had already fluttered through the window, and away she flew headlong.... In the garden, in the wilderness of the lilac-bushes, a turtle-dove greeted her with its first cooing; and at the spot where she had vanished the milky-white sky flushed a soft crimson. I recognised thee, goddess of fancy! Thou hast visited me by accident--thou hast flown in to young poets. O poetry! O youth! O virginal beauty of woman! Only for an instant can ye gleam before me,--in the early morning of the early spring! May, 1878. NECESSITAS--VIS--LIBERTAS A BAS-RELIEF A tall, bony old woman with an iron face and a dull, impassive gaze is walking along with great strides, and pushing before her, with her hand as harsh as a stick, another woman. This woman, of vast size, powerful, corpulent, with the muscles of a Hercules, and a tiny head on a bull-like neck-and blind--is pushing on in her turn a small, thin young girl. This girl alone has eyes which see; she resists, turns backward, elevates her thin red arms; her animated countenance expresses impatience and hardihood.... She does not wish to obey, she does not wish to advance in the direction whither she is being impelled ... and, nevertheless, she must obey and advance. _Necessitas--Vis--Libertas_: Whoever likes may interpret this. May, 1878. ALMS In the vicinity of a great city, on the broad, much-travelled road, an aged, ailing man was walking. He was staggering as he went; his emaciated legs, entangling themselves, trailing and stumbling, trod heavily and feebly, exactly as though they belonged to some one else; his clothing hung on him in rags; his bare head drooped upon his breast.... He was exhausted. He squatted down on a stone by the side of the road, bent forward, propped his elbows on his knees, covered his face with both hands, and between his crooked fingers the tears dripped on the dry, grey dust. He was remembering....