As he spoke two young Russian officers came tumbling up the stairs. They were talking excitedly, not listening to one another, red in the face and tripping over their swords. They went up to the next floor, their voices very shrill. "So much for your sentimental Russia," said Semyonov. He spoke very quietly. "How I shall love to see these fools all toppled over, and then the fools who toppled them toppled in their turn. "Durward, you're a fool too, but you're English, and at least you've got a conscience. I tell you, you'll see in these next months such cowardice, such selfishness, such meanness, such ignorance as the world has never known--and all in the name of Freedom! Why, they're chattering about freedom already downstairs as hard as they can go!" "As usual, Semyonov," I answered hotly, "you believe in the good of no one. If there's really a Revolution coming, which I still doubt, it may lead to the noblest liberation." "Oh, you're an ass!" he interrupted quietly. "Nobility and the human race! I tell you, Ivan Andreievitch of the noble character, that the human race is rotten; that it is composed of selfishness, vice, and meanness; that it is hypocritical beyond the bounds of hypocrisy, and that of all mean cowardly nations on this earth the Russian nation is the meanest and most cowardly!... That fine talk of ours that you English slobber over!--a mere excuse for idleness, and you'll know it before another year is through. I despise mankind with a contempt that every day's fresh experience only the more justifies. Only once have I found some one who had a great soul, and she, too, if I had secured her, might have disappointed me.... No, my time is coming. I shall see at last my fellowmen in their true colours, and I shall even perhaps help them to display them. My worthy Markovitch, for example--" "What about Markovitch?" I asked sharply. He got up, smiling. He put his hand on my shoulder. "He shall be driven by ghosts," he answered, and turned off to the stairs. He looked back for a moment. "The funny thing is, I like you, Durward," he said. X