Historical fiction; War stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
This morning he was dirty and looked as though he had slept for many
nights without taking off his clothes--unshaven, his shirt open
showing his hairy chest, his eyes blinking in the light.
"That's good," he said, seeing us. "I've got to be off, leaving the
place to you.... Fearful time they're having over there," pointing
across the garden. "Yes, five versts away. Plenty of work in a minute.
Brought food with you? Very little here." Then I heard him begin, as
he walked into the house with Nikitin, "Terrible thing, Doctor, about
your Sister yesterday.... Terrible.... I--"
I remember that my great desire was that I should not be left alone
with Trenchard. I clung to Andrey Vassilievitch, and a poor resource
he was, watching with nervous eyes the building and the glimmering
forest, dusting his clothes and beginning sentences which he did not
finish, Trenchard was quite silent. We entered the horrible room of
yesterday. The dirty plate and the sardine-tin were still there with
the flies about them: the highly coloured German supplement watched us
from its rakish position on the wall, the treatise on New Mexico was
lying on the table. I picked up the book and it opened naturally at a
place where the last reader had turned down the corner of the page.
The same page happens to be quoted exactly in Trenchard's diary on an
occasion about which afterwards I shall have to speak. There is an
account of the year's work of some New Mexican school and it runs:
"Besides the regular class work there have been other
features of special merit, programmes of which we append:
"Lectures: Rev. H. W. Ruffner, Titles and Degrees; Mr. Fred
A. Bush, What the Community owes the Newspaper and what the
Newspaper owes the Community; Dr. E. H. Woods, Tuberculosis;
Rev. I. R. Glass, Fools; Mr. Eugene Warren, Blood of the
Nation; Dr. L. M. Strong, Orthopedics; Hon. S. M.
Ashenfelter, Freedom of Effort; Hon. W. T. Cessna, Don't Pay
too dearly for the Whistle; Dr. O. S. Westlake, The
Physician and the Laity; Prof. Wellington Putman, Rip Van
Winkle; Rev. E. S. Hanshaw, The Mind's Picture Gallery; Hon.
R. M. Turner, Opportunities.
"_Othello._ For the first time the normal students presented
for the class-day exercise a Shakespearian play, _Othello_.
Cast of characters: Othello, E. F. Dunlavey; Iago, Douglas
Giffard; Duke of Venice, Charles Harper; Brabantio, Eugene
Cosgrove; Cassio, Arnold Rosenfeld; Roderigo, Erwin Moore;
Montano, Wilson Portherfield; Lodovico, Henry Geitz;
Gratiano, William Fleming; Desdemona, Carrie Whitehill;
Emilia, Gussie Rodgers; Bianca, Florence Otter; senators,
officers, messengers and attendants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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