She spoke rapidly, like lines committed—the same death-like weariness in her tones.... She had taken my hand:
"Come, we must find him ... take me to the place where you left him—come quickly——"
It was some distance. We walked at first in silence. It seemed as if I could not live if I did not find out what she would have done this morning in my place. Presently she said:
"I thought he would fail when it came to ordering a charge. He was very brave, they say."
I loved the students who told her that, but I had known too much torture to keep the perfect silence.
"... It was hard for him.... He isn't a killer—he saw only the white-haired boys——"
"My beloved——" she whispered.
"I told him that it was the same in Petrograd as here—that the dream held here—that you would have told him to be strong at the death part——"
She was not listening. She did not answer.