dentally, without genuine cause."

The warder rouses himself, and, with his keys jingling like a set of
fetters, utters drowsily the command:

"Do not stand still. Also, move further from the wall. To approach it
is forbidden."

"But it is so hot in the middle of the yard, sir!"

"Everywhere it is hot," retorts the man reprovingly, and his head
subsides again. From above comes the whispered query:

"Who ARE you?"

"Well, do you remember Tatiana, the woman from Riazan?"

"DO I remember her?" Konev's voice has in it a touch of subdued
resentment. "DO I remember her? Why, I was tried in court together with
her!"

"Together with HER? Was she too sentenced for the passing of base coin?"

"Yes. Why should she not have been? She was merely the victim of an
accident, even as I was."

As I resume my walk in the stifling shade I detect that, from the
windows of the basement there is issuing a smell of, in equal parts,
rotten leather, mouldy grain, and dampness. To my mind there recur
Tatiana's words: "Amid a great sorrow even a small joy becomes a great
felicity," and, "I should like to build a village on some land of my
own, and create for myself a new and better life."

And to my recollection there recur also Tatiana's face and yearning,
hungry breast. As I stand thinking of these things, there come dropping
on to my head from above the low-spoken, ashen-grey words:

"The chief conspirator in the matter was her lover, the son of a
priest. He it was who engineered the plot. He has been sentenced to ten
years penal servitude."

"And she?"

"Tatiana Vasilievna? To the same, and I also. I leave for Siberia the
day after tomorrow. The trial was held at Kutair. In Russia I should
have got off with a lighter sentence than here, for the folk in these
parts are, one and all, evil, barbaric scoundrels."

"And Tatiana, has she any children?"

"How could she have while living such a rough life as this? Of course
not! Besides, the priest's son is a consumptive."

"Indeed sorry for her am I!"

"So I expect." And in Konev's tone there would seem to be a touch of
meaning. "The woman was a fool--of that there can be no doubt; but also
she was comely, as well as a person out of the common in her pity for
folk."

"Was it then that you found her again?"

"When?"

"On that Feast of the Assumption?"

"Oh no. It was only during the following winter that I came up with
her. At the time she was serving as governess to the