imself out on the sofa, put his hands behind his head, and
looked up at the sky. After a minute or two he got up and came back
to the table to listen to Lebedeff's outpourings, as the latter
passionately commentated on Evgenie Pavlovitch's paradox.

"That is an artful and traitorous idea. A smart notion," vociferated
the clerk, "thrown out as an apple of discord. But it is just. You are a
scoffer, a man of the world, a cavalry officer, and, though not without
brains, you do not realize how profound is your thought, nor how true.
Yes, the laws of self-preservation and of self-destruction are equally
powerful in this world. The devil will hold his empire over humanity
until a limit of time which is still unknown. You laugh? You do not
believe in the devil? Scepticism as to the devil is a French idea, and
it is also a frivolous idea. Do you know who the devil is? Do you know
his name? Although you don't know his name you make a mockery of his
form, following the example of Voltaire. You sneer at his hoofs, at
his tail, at his horns--all of them the produce of your imagination! In
reality the devil is a great and terrible spirit, with neither
hoofs, nor tail, nor horns; it is you who have endowed him with these
attributes! But... he is not the question just now!"

"How do you know he is not the question now?" cried Hippolyte, laughing
hysterically.

"Another excellent idea, and worth considering!" replied Lebedeff. "But,
again, that is not the question. The question at this moment is whether
we have not weakened 'the springs of life' by the extension..."

"Of railways?" put in Colia eagerly.

"Not railways, properly speaking, presumptuous youth, but the general
tendency of which railways may be considered as the outward expression
and symbol. We hurry and push and hustle, for the good of humanity!
'The world is becoming too noisy, too commercial!' groans some solitary
thinker. 'Undoubtedly it is, but the noise of waggons bearing bread to
starving humanity is of more value than tranquillity of soul,' replies
another triumphantly, and passes on with an air of pride. As for me, I
don't believe in these waggons bringing bread to humanity. For, founded
on no moral principle, these may well, even in the act of carrying bread
to humanity, coldly exclude a considerable portion of humanity from
enjoying it; that has been seen more than once.

"What, these waggons may coldly exclude?" repeated someone.

"That has been seen alr