rner of the prison office, a low, narrow, dingy
apartment, where a few more people were sitting and waiting for
permission to see their relatives and friends. Evidently it was not
the first time they were here, for they knew one another and in a low
voice kept up a lazy, languid conversation.

"Have you heard?" said a stout woman with a wizened face and a
traveling bag on her lap. "At early mass to-day the church regent
again ripped up the ear of one of the choir boys."

An elderly man in the uniform of a retired soldier coughed aloud and
remarked:

"These choir boys are such loafers!"

A short, bald, little man with short legs, long arms, and protruding
jaw, ran officiously up and down the room. Without stopping he said in
a cracked, agitated voice:

"The cost of living is getting higher and higher. An inferior quality
of beef, fourteen cents; bread has again risen to two and a half."

Now and then prisoners came into the room--gray, monotonous, with
coarse, heavy, leather shoes. They blinked as they entered; iron
chains rattled at the feet of one of them. The quiet and calm and
simplicity all around produced a strange, uncouth impression. It
seemed as if all had grown accustomed to their situation. Some sat
there quietly, others looked on idly, while still others seemed to pay
their regular visits with a sense of weariness. The mother's heart
quivered with impatience, and she looked with a puzzled air at
everything around her, amazed at the oppressive simplicity of life in
this corner of the world.

Next to Vlasova sat a little old woman with a wrinkled face, but
youthful eyes. She kept her thin neck turned to listen to the
conversation, and looked about on all sides with a strange expression
of eagerness in her face.

"Whom have you here?" Vlasova asked softly.

"A son, a student," answered the old woman in a loud, brusque voice.
"And you?"

"A son, also. A workingman."

"What's the name?"

"Vlasov."

"Never heard of him. How long has he been in prison?"

"Seven weeks."

"And mine has been in for ten months," said the old woman, with a
strange note of pride in her voice which did not escape the notice of
the mother.

A tall lady dressed in black, with a thin, pale face, said lingeringly:

"They'll soon put all the decent people in prison. They can't endure
them, they loathe them!"

"Yes, yes!" said the little old bald man, speaking rapidly. "All
patience is disappearing. Every