word, but also in the moral sense.
Money would not be necessary to save them, but a word of sympathy,
of love, a word that would give them the courage really to live.

And it is here that old Luke appears. He treats the men as if they
were children, and gains their confidence. In his words there is
manifested a real experience of things and people. As he says, "They
moulded me a lot," and that is why he became "tender." He knows just
the right word for every one. He assures the dying woman that:
"Eternal rest means happiness. Die, and you will have rest, you will
have no cares, and no one to fear. Silence will calm you! All you
have to do is remain lying down! Death pacifies and is tender. You
will appear before God, and He will say to you: 'Take her to
Paradise so that she may rest. I know that her life has been hard;
she is tired, give her peace.'" And the sick woman, who has dragged
out her existence so long, is consoled.

To the drunkard, a former actor who has fallen, Luke says: "Stop
drinking, pull yourself together and be patient. You will be cured,
and you will begin a new existence...." And he succeeds in awakening
a hope of a better life in the soul of the poor comedian, while he
himself, perhaps, hardly believes in the possible regeneration of
his protege.

After Luke's departure, the temporary dreams of these miserable
people vanish. One evening, when they are all gathered around a
bottle of brandy, they strike up a song. A friend, a baron by birth,
rushes into the cellar and announces that the actor has hung
himself, and that his corpse is hanging in the court. A deathlike
silence follows these words. All look at each other in fright. "Ah,
the fool!" finally murmurs a vagabond, "he spoiled our song...." The
hope in a better life that Luke had awakened in the actor made him
kill himself, when he saw that he had not enough strength to realize
this hope.

This drama is the quintessence of all that Gorky has, up to this
time, written on the "ex-man," whom he has thoroughly "explored."
And the figure of old Luke is one of his most original and lifelike
creations.

His third important play, which, however, has never enjoyed the
popularity of "A Night's Refuge," is called: "The Children of the
Sun." The "children of the sun" are the elect of heaven, richly
endowed with talent and knowledge. They live in a world of noble
dreams, of elevated thoughts, enveloped though they are in the
greyness of life. There