London (England) -- Fiction; Russians -- England -- Fiction
At length a man in one of the far corners of the room rose to put a
question. His accent showed him to be a foreigner, but that was not
a very remarkable thing in Soho. He had a scrubby chin and dirty
linen, two other characteristics not uncommon in that region. After a
preliminary cough he explained that his question was rather personal
than general, and he quite allowed that the lecturer was not bound
to answer it; but he said that, having been in Russia, he could bear
testimony to the truth of all that had been said that evening, and
that while in the south of Russia he had come across a small pamphlet,
called 'A Prophetic Vision,' which he had been told had been written
by a Count Michael Litvinoff. Some parts of the address to-night had
reminded him of that excellent pamphlet, and he thought it would be
interesting to the audience to know whether the author of that pamphlet
was the speaker of the evening.
Litvinoff rose at once.
'I had no idea,' he said, 'that the little _brochure_ would ever be
heard of outside the country for whose children it was written; but
since the question is asked me so frankly to-night, I will answer as
frankly--Yes, I wrote it.'
An approving murmur ran through the room, and the foreigner rose again.
He was sorry again to trouble Citizen Litvinoff, but was he right in
supposing (it had been so reported) that the discovery of this pamphlet
by the Russian Government had occasioned Count Litvinoff's exile?
Litvinoff was very pale as he answered,--
'Yes; it was that unhappy pamphlet which deprived me of the chance of
serving my country on the scene of action, and which lost me a life I
valued above my own--that of a fellow-countryman of the audience which
I have the pleasure of addressing to-night--my secretary and friend,
whom I loved more than a brother.' His voice trembled as he ended.
There was another round of applause, and, no more questions being
forthcoming, the meeting broke up, and people stood talking together
in little groups. Richard was discussing a knotty economic point
with a sturdy carpenter and trades unionist, and Roland, close by,
was earnestly questioning a French Communist to whom Litvinoff had
introduced him, and was receiving an account of the so-called murder of
the hostages very different from any which had appeared in the daily
papers of the period, when the Count came up to them.
'Excuse me,' he said, 'I am _désolé_; but I shall be unable to stay
longer. You will be able, doubtless, to pilot yourselves back to
civilisation, and will pardon my abrupt departure. I have just seen
someone going out of the door whom I've been trying to catch for the
last three months, and I'm off in pursuit.'
And he was off. As he passed a small knot of youths outside the door
they looked after him, and one of them said with a laugh, 'Blest if I
don't believe he's after that handsome gal. What chaps these foreigners
are for the ladies.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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