ccording to Chekanhov, all of his
generation are in the same position: it is _Astray_, without a
guiding star, it is perishing without realizing it.... Finally, in
order to avoid the pressing questions of Natasha, who would like to
work and sacrifice herself for the poor, he points out to her the
salutary work of the village school-mistress. A few days later he
dies, welcoming death with joy.

* * * * *

While the people who were ending their existence and those who were
beginning it were so carefully looking for a field of action, the
uncultivated ground of Russian life was gradually being cleared by
the slow evolution of an economic movement. Between 1895 and 1900,
as a result of the natural development of national commerce, the
number of city workingmen grew to vast proportions and they formed
an important class, which, on account of its situation, was much
more qualified than the peasants to interest itself in the ideas of
socialism and liberty. So from the very midst of the people certain
individuals appeared capable of adopting progressive ideas; Marxism
awaited them, the theory which is the basis of European democratic
socialism. This doctrine was nothing new in Russia. But formerly,
the proletariat of the cities had been very little developed and the
Marxian doctrines had been of theoretical interest only.

"The Contagion" has for its heroine Natasha,--the Natasha that we
have already met, but how transformed! She has at last found her
bearings. If, in 1892, she was waiting for the right road to be
shown to her, in 1896 she was enthusiastically following the new
road opened by the doctrines of Marx.

In Zharoshenko's famous picture, "The Student," Uspensky notes
something new in this type of femininity. He calls it "the masculine
trait"; it is the mark of thought. He sees there the harmonious
fusion of a young girl and an adolescent boy, with an expression
neither feminine nor masculine, but exceptionally human. And this
transforms Zharoshenko's "Student" into a luminous personification,
unknown up to this time, a type which synthesizes "le type humain."

In the work of Veressayev this student is Natasha. Reflection has
ripened her mind since her last talk with poor Chekanhov. She has
become a regular "mannish woman," having seen and thought a great
deal. She has traveled; she has lived in St. Petersburg and in the
south of Russia. Full of courage and energy, she claims to be