On the following evening Yourii went to the same spot where he had met
Sina Karsavina and her companion. Throughout the day he had thought
with pleasure of his talk with them on the previous evening, and he
hoped to meet them again, discuss the same subjects, and perceive the
same look of sympathy and tenderness in Sina's gentle eyes.
It was a calm evening. The air was warm, and a slight dust floated
above the streets. Except for one or two passers-by, the boulevard was
absolutely deserted. Yourii walked slowly along, his eyes fixed on the
ground.
"How boring!" he thought. "What am I to do?"
Suddenly Schafroff, the student, walking briskly, and, swinging his
arm, approached him with a friendly smile on his face.
"Why are you dawdling along like this, eh?" he asked, stopping short,
and giving Yourii a big, strong hand.
"Oh! I am bored to death, and there's nothing to do. Where are you
going?" asked Yourii, in a languid, patronizing tone. He always spoke
thus to Schafroff, because, as a former member of the revolutionary
committee he looked upon the lad as just an amateur revolutionist.
Schafroff smiled as one thoroughly pleased with himself.
"We have got a lecture to-day," he said, pointing to a packet of thin
pamphlets in coloured wrappers. Yourii mechanically took one, and,
opening it, read the long, dry preface to a popular Socialistic
address, once well known to him, but which he had quite forgotten.
"Where is the lecture to be given?" he asked with the same slightly
contemptuous smile as he handed back the pamphlet.
"At the school," replied Schafroff, mentioning the one at which Sina
Karsavina and Dubova were teachers. Yourii remembered that Lialia had
once told him about these lectures, but he had paid no attention.
"May I come with you?" he asked.
"Why, of course!" replied Schafroff, eager to assent to this proposal.
He looked upon Yourii as a real agitator, and, over-estimating his
political abilities, felt a reverence for him that bordered on
affection.
"I am greatly interested in such matters." Yourii felt it necessary to
say this, being all the while glad that he had now got an engagement
for the evening, and that he would see Sina again.
"Why, yes, of course," said Schafroff.
"Then, let us go."
They walked quickly along the boulevard and crossed the bridge, from
each side of which came humid airs, and they soon reached the school
where people had already assembled.