Show 7 we have changed all that by herbert quick and elena mac mahon J coper copyright abt by bv the bobbs bb merrill I 1 co W L U service ries herbert kuicks quicks visit to vladivostok in 1920 on behalf of the red cross and his meeting with elena Stepa nolT led to this story etory it came an an interlude 1 in n the composition of 0 his epic of the 1 iowa owa soil coil the three famous novels vande Van demarks marks folly the hawkeye and the invisible woman slid and the personal record of 0 his early years one at mans a na lite life he fie desired to have its is P publication uti deferred ua 1111 11 the last S mentioned work his autom autobiography graphy was finished then came his untimely death the reader familiar with hl his style will find its impress everywhere every here in we have changed all that and nowhere else perhaps does it appear to better advantage yet let he was anxious that his bis collaborator a woman of the untitled nobility a monarchist of the extreme right but with tb the e true russian instinct tor the veri verifies verities ties ies should have a full share of credit 1 I am trying to make it he said a real of 0 the life cf c the victims the nob in the most striking dissolution of social values in history the facts acts the nuances of 0 the life and the plot in large measure are furnished by mv m collaborators collaborator this brilliant and unique work gives new 1 1 ew evidence ot of his power and sympathy it Is a masterly mat terly etching of the end of a great epoch an etching in which the torce force of imagination Is equalled equal led by br the skill of execution CHAPTER I 1 1 kazan and the house of krassin the roan man wore a peasants smock but he was very terrible to the great lady who was showing him over her house bouse but that group of men who followed him they were more terrible still yet she could not conceal from him the feeling 0 of contempt that flint she felt for him and for them as she opened otte mie room after another for their inspection thit Is one of the ro rooms oms said she with that little half contemptuous smile as if at his ignorance of great houses into which we looked at first across here are the last rooms on this side enter please I 1 the nan man in the peasants smock followed by that terrible squad of armed men felt the sting 0 of her contempt for he had been in grent great houses hi tore fore this peasants smock he be wished that he could somehow make tier her understand that he be had never worn it until liberty came to russia to in the dictatorship of the proletariat leta letar riat lat he was confused and exasperated pe rated cd just as she had hoped he would be so he turned from the door brouch hr ouch which she had said they had been before just as with held beld breath she had hoped he would do and he entered the room across th the hall ball when the strong plain distin distill gulshen old lady of the palace swung the door open for him the squad paused outside the nao man in the peasants smock entered entered the luxurious boudoir of a lady he bo strode across to the other end of the room and threw aside a beautiful persian tui hanging nging he pressed rudely through into a bedroom As he entered a young youna girl rose from a chaise longue on which she had been reclining and stood before him in filmy negligee her eyes wide with as ment mother other bl gasped the girl what hat Is the meaning of 0 this it Is an officer of the government said the old lady still breathing quickly hut but more easily I 1 a does the lie hen ben pheasant when the search hits has passed her nest he is looking of nt the bouse they thought we might ails hu have ve unoccupied rooms I 1 have explained to this this gentleman gentlemen b no gentleman he be shouted oil with deedless emphasis 1 I nin am of the local government ol of the ahe dictatorship of the we are considering whether 1011 oil fine ladies will not go out nut into lie he street ft reel and leave these rooms to t the I 1 e 0 officers meers ot of the government 1 A lusla said bald the old woman you may retire my laughter daughter while we ure are busy here I 1 nothing doing sald said 1 I 1 dont feel so much in a hurry burry as I 1 adli before I 1 came in here tills this room mom sold eald lie he to his fieri clerk hut but looking at the girl will remain just ns ass it Is I 1 like the furniture I 1 like everything in it come colne my dear piny us some music I 1 feel like enjoying myself today I 1 does doeg the reader comprehend compre liend the situation scarcely unless he or slip she was in karau in those thoe times or at least in russia perhaps we way may make it easier to understand to the eyes of travelers pres preshing bing eastward that day tron from moscow or petrograd Petro grad elther b by railway or by bout boat on the volga the ancient city of kazan lay sprawled abroad ing in the hot sun of midsummer it Is it if one may dueis bucsa hat flint anything but chaos and famine in the volka volga basin heill Is the center of mohammedan culture in ealero RUB nuo sla and fit 0 Chris christian thin culture too for it Is the olle of the veat V eat cathedral of 0 the in it still stands one may suppose gnp pose the old convent in which the miracle working black virgin ol of kazan once had her home before site she was ravished lavished ravi shed away by higher howera which cared for or religious relies relics first centuries ago to blo moscow scow and then to st SL pete petersburg asburg wh where c re it appears her miracles have been less frequent than they were ft ere formerly with her oriental eye kazan looked away across the elie admiralty suburb where peter the elie grent great built his river fleet for or his campaigns against persia down her ber pretty little river the ka zanka to where the volga the itu itus sian mississippi flowed almost dry on this lay day in comparison hillh lh the floods that sometimes roll into the pur purlieus purlie ileum us of kazan looked on across the ibe volga over v mysterious distances to my mysterious sterl oil eastern places to perm to ufa down to Sa and on to astrakhan cut but kazan had an eye of the occident too with this she contemplated tier lur railway line front from moscow Alo scow tier her factories of soap of hect her population just now nour seemed much in n need tier her other factories of kenther goods is military boots munitions of war and to go will wilh the munitions of sacred images and candles candies of cotton cloth woolens and bells there were vere many travelers who sought for a first glance of it and thought it only a little dirtier than of yore they were ere of all sorts but those who bo thought of the dirt are worth noting ariey talked among themselves of the house of krassin where at this moment Tova risch Is asking ausla krassin to play tor for him film such travelers wore all sorts of clothes and a few were to in uniform all their clothes were or had once been of good quality some of these men had bad never seen kazan or had T kazan had an eye of the occident too seen her rarely but they were crowd ing into the city because most of then them were under the laws of the old em pire legal residents of the town bf be cause their ancestors had bad been registered there they were of the casti caste of the plain proud old woman who had fluttered away from her secret secre with Tova risch VIll down there then in the krassin house a part of thi the history of great russia with au an thorl ty great estates immense power powe and wealth and back a few decades with the serf and the knout in thel their systems ethey were going down to kazan tor for another sitting of 0 the grent great court of fate in which went on the trial of their souls a court in which were also on trial the souls of Tova risch villa sky of the squad of armed men with him and the soul of mrs airs krassin with her secret room and her blond haired daughter alusha russia was a greist rent wine ine press in which the gropes grapes were being crushed crus lied and the grapes were ere the souls of men and women TO BE CONTINUED |