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“Silence!” Gavriloff (such was the name of my companion) seems to me to have some secret design in view.
“No, sir, I will tell you something…. Believe me, upon my word, there comes to me such a moment that I wish not to look at the world at all…. Its origin I do not know. I only am aware that such a time comes well, then just like a knife piercing my heart, and that is all.”
“Perhaps your service is too toilsome?”
“Service is service…. It is true that it is no pleasure; the authorities also are said to be severe, but, there, nothing of that should be spoken of.”
“What is it then?”
“Who knows that?”
Again silence reigned.
“Still, now having suffered already so much, I grew familiarised with my fate. Well, and the authorities took notice of me, and I was promoted as a non-com-
