Sanine

The newcomers were greeted with a noisy chorus of welcome. Yourii saw

Sina Karsavina sitting on the window-sill, and instantly everything

seemed to him bright and joyous, as if the meeting were not in a stuffy

room full of smoke, but at a festival amid fair green meadows in

spring.

Sina, slightly confused, smiled at him pleasantly.

"Well, sirs, I think we are all here, now," exclaimed Soloveitchik,

trying to speak in a loud, cheery way with his feeble, unsteady voice,

and gesticulating in ludicrous fashion.

"I beg your pardon, Yourii Nicolaijevitch; I seem to be always pushing

against you," he said, laughing, as he lurched forward in an endeavour

to be polite.

Yourii good-humouredly squeezed his arm.

"That's all right," he said.

"We're not all here, but deuce take the others!" cried a burly, good-

looking student. His loud tradesman's voice made one feel that he was

used to ordering others about.

Soloveitchik sprang forward to the table and rang a little bell. He

smiled once more, and this time for sheer satisfaction at having

thought of using a bell.

"Oh I none of that!" growled the student. "You've always got some silly

nonsense of that sort. It's not necessary in the least."

"Well ... I thought ... that...." stammered Soloveitchik, as, looking

embarrassed, he put the bell in his pocket.

"I think that the table should be placed in the middle of the room,"

said the student.

"Yes, yes, I am going to move it directly!" replied Soloveitchik, as he

hurriedly caught hold of the edge of the table.

"Mind the lamp!" cried Dubova.

"That's not the way to move it!" exclaimed the student, slapping his

knee.

"Let me help you," said Sanine.

"Thank you! Please!" replied Soloveitchik eagerly.

Sanine set the table in the middle of the room, and as he did so, the

eyes of all were fixed on his strong back and muscular shoulders which

showed through his thin shirt.

"Now, Goschienko, as the initiator of this meeting, it is for you to

make the opening speech," said the pale-faced Dubova, and from the

expression in her eyes it was hard to say if she were in earnest, or

only laughing at the student.

"Ladies and gentlemen," began Goschienko, raising his voice, "everybody

knows why we have met here to-night, and so we can dispense with any

introductory speech."

"As a matter of fact," said Sanine, "I don't know why I came here,

but," he added, laughing, "it may have been because I was told that

there would be some beer."