§11
There is one thing more. Twice a week the post from Moscow came to Vyatka. With what excitement I waited near the post-office while the letters were sorted! How my heart beat as I broke the seal of my letter from home and searched inside for a little enclosure, written on thin paper in a wonderfully small and beautiful hand!
I did not read that in the post-office. I walked slowly home, putting off the happy moment and feasting on the thought that the letter was there.
These letters have all been preserved. I left them at Moscow when I quitted Russia. Though I longed to read them over, I was afraid to touch them.
Letters are more than recollections, the very life blood of the past is stored up in them; they are the past, exactly as it was, preserved from destruction and decay.
Is it really necessary once again to know, to see, to touch with hands which age has covered with wrinkles, what once you wore on your wedding-day?[[109]]
[109]. These letters were from Herzen’s cousin, Natálya Zakhárin, who became his wife in 1838.
CHAPTER X
The Crown Prince at Vyatka—The Fall of Tufáyev—Transferred to Vladímir—The Inspector’s Enquiry.