ate their sins by work.
It so happens, Rostopchin explained, that the officer in charge of the
prison feeding arrangements is a very energetic fellow, who had served
in the old army in a similar capacity, and the meals served out to
the prisoners are so much better than those produced in the Soviet
headquarters, that the members of the Executive Committee make a
practice of walking over to the prison to dine. They invited us to
do the same. Larin did not feel up to the walk, so he remained in the
Soviet House to eat an inferior meal, while Radek and I, with Rostopchin
and three other members of the local committee walked round to the
prison. The bell tower of the old nunnery had been half shot away by
artillery, and is in such a precarious condition that it is proposed
to pull it down. But on passing under it we came into a wide courtyard
surrounded by two-story whitewashed buildings that seemed scarcely to
have suffered at all. We found the refectory in one of these buildings.
It was astonishingly clean. There were wooden tables, of course without
cloths, and each man had a wooden spoon and a hunk of bread. A great
bowl of really excellent soup was put down in the middle of table, and
we fell to hungrily enough. I made more mess on the table than any one
else, because it requires considerable practice to convey almost boiling
soup from a distant bowl to one's mouth without spilling it in a shallow
wooden spoon four inches in diameter, and, having got it to one's mouth,
to get any of it in without slopping over on either side. The regular
diners there seemed to find no difficulty in it at all. One of the
prisoners who mopped up after my disasters said I had better join them
for a week, when I should find it quite easy. The soup bowl was followed
by a fry of potatoes, quantities of which are grown in the district. For
dealing with these I found the wooden spoon quite efficient. After that
we had glasses of some sort of substitute for tea.

The Conference was held in the town theatre. There was a hint of comedy
in the fact that the orchestra was playing the prelude to some very
cheerful opera before the curtain rang up. Radek characteristically
remarked that such music should be followed by something more
sensational than a conference, proposed to me that we should form a
tableau to illustrate the new peaceful policy of England with regard to
Russia. As it was a party conference, I had really no right to be
there, but R