The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dark Forest, by Hugh Walpole

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Title: The Dark Forest

Author: Hugh Walpole

Release Date: October 24, 2006 [EBook #19614]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DARK FOREST ***

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The

DARK FOREST

by

HUGH WALPOLE

GROSSET & DUNLAP _Publishers_, _New York_
_by arrangement with_ GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1916
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

* * * * *

TO

KONSTANTINE SAMOFF

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

BY HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR

* * * * *

CONTENTS

PART ONE

CHAPTER

I. SPRING IN THE TRAIN

II. THE SCHOOL-HOUSE

III. THE INVISIBLE BATTLE

IV. NIKITIN

V. FIRST MOVE TO THE ENEMY

VI. THE RETREAT

VII. ONE NIGHT

PART TWO

I. THE LOVERS

II. MARIE IVANOVNA

III. THE FOREST

IV. FOUR?

V. THE DOOR CLOSES BEHIND THEM

* * * * *

PART ONE

CHAPTER I

SPRING IN THE TRAIN

His was the first figure to catch my eye that evening in Petrograd; he
stood under the dusky lamp in the vast gloomy Warsaw station, with
exactly the expression that I was afterwards to know so well,
impressed not only upon his face but also upon the awkwardness of his
arms that hung stiffly at his side, upon the baggy looseness of his
trousers at the knees, the unfastened straps of his long black
military boots. His face, with its mild blue eyes, straggly fair
moustache, expressed anxiety and pride, timidity and happiness,
apprehension and confidence. He was in that first moment of my sight
of him as helpless, as unpractical, and as anxious to please as any
lost dog in the world--and he was also as proud as Lucifer. I knew him
at once for an Englishman; his Russian uniform only accente