given, Bakunin was forgiven, and I the first to do so. Martyanov would sometimes say: 'He is only a grown-up Liza,' Alexander lvanovich; how could one be angry with her-a child?'
• H.'s daughter by Natalya Tuchkov-Ogarev, born 1 858. ( Tr. )
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him one of those individualists whom neither the contemporary world nor history can pass by.
That he ever came to marry, I can only put down to the boredom of Siberia. He had piously preserved all the habits and customs of his fatherland, that is of student-life in Moscow: heaps of tobacco lay on his table like stores of forage, cigar-ash covered his papers, together with half-finished glasses of tea ; from morning onwards clouds of smoke hung about the room from a regular suite of smokers, who smoked as though they were racing each other, hurriedly blov•;ing it out and dra\ving it in-as only Russians and Slavs do smoke, in fact. Many a time I enjoyed the amazement accompanied by a certain horror and perplexity, of the landlady's servant, Grace, when at dead of night she brought boiling water and a fifth basin of sugar into this hotbed of Slav emancipation.
Long after Bakunin left London, tales were told at No. 10
Paddington Green of the v1ray he went on, which upset all the consolidated notions and religiously observed forms and degrees of English middle-class life. Note at the same time that both the maid and the landlady were madly devoted to him.
'Yesterday," one of his friends told Bakunin, 'So-and-so arrived from Russia ; he is a very fine man, formerly an officer.'
'I have heard about him; he is very \veil spoken of.'
'May I bring him?'
'Certainly; but "vhy bring him, where is he? I'll go and see him. I'll go at once.'
'He seems to be rather a Constitutionalist.'
'Perhaps, but . . .'
'But I know he is a chivalrous, fearless and noble man.'
'And trustworthy?'
'He is much respected at Orsett House.'
'Let us go to him.'
'Why? He meant to come to you: that was what we agreed. I'll bring him.'
Bakunin rushes to his writing; he writes and scratches out something, writes it out again, and seals up a packet addressed to Jassy; in his restless expectation he begins walking about the room \Vith a tread which sets the whole house-No. 1 0 Paddington Green-shaking with his step.
The officer makes his appearance quietly and modestly. Bakunin lc met a l'aisc, talks like a comrade, like a young man, fascinates him, scolds him for his constitutionalism and suddenly asks:
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'I am sure you won't refuse to do something for the common cause.'
'Of course not.'
'There is nothing that detains you here ?'
'Nothing; I have only just arrived, I. . . .'
'Can you go to-morrow or next day with this letter to Jassy?'
Such a thing had not happened to the officer either at the front in time of war or on the general staff in peace-time. However, accustomed to military obedience, he says, after a pause, in a voice that does not sound quite naturaclass="underline"
'Oh yes!'
'I knew you \vould. Here is the letter perfectly ready.'
'I am ready to set off at once . . . only . . .' (the officer i s embarrassed) . 'I had not at a l l reckoned o n such a journey.'
'What? No money? Then say so; that's of no consequence. I'll get it for you from Herzen: you shall pay it back later on. Why, what is it? Only some £20 or so. I'll write to him at once. You will find money at Jassy. From there you can make your way to the Caucasus. We particularly need a trust·.vorthy man there.'
The officer, amazed, dumbfounded, and his companion equally amazed and dumbfounded, take their leave. A little girl whom Bakunin employed on great diplomatic errands flies to me through the rain and sleet with a note. I used to keep chocolate en losanges expressly for her benefit, to comfort her for the climate of her native country, and so I give her a big handful and add:
'Tell the tall gentleman that I shall talk it over with him personally.'
The correspondence in fact turned out to be superfluous.
Bakunin appeared for dinner, that is an hour later.
'Why £20 for X?'
'Not for him, for the cause; and I say, brother, isn't X a splendid fellow?'
'I have known him for some years. He has stayed in London before.'
'It is such a chance, it would be a sin to let it slip. I am sending him to Jassy, and then he'll have a look round in the Caucasus.'
'To Jassy? And from there to the Caucasus?'
'I see you are going to be funny,' said Bakunin. 'You won't prove ·anything by jokes.'
'But you know you don't want anything in Jassy.'
'How do you know?'
'I know, in the first place, because nobody does want anything
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in Jassy; and in the second place, if anything were wanted, you would have been telling me about it incessantly for the last week. You have simply come across a shy young man who wants to prove his devotion, and so you have taken it into your head to send him to Jassy. He wants to see the Exhibition and you will show him Moldo-Wallachia . Come, tell me what for?'
'What inquisitiveness! You never take part in these things with me: what right have you to ask?'
'That is true: in fact, I imagine that it i s a secret you will keep from everyone ; anyhow, I have not the slightest intention of giving money for couriers to Jassy and Bucharest.'
'But he will pay you back; he will have money.'
'Then let him make a wiser use of it. That's enough; you can send the letter by some Petresco-Manon-Lescaut; and now let's go and eat.'
And Bakunin, laughing himself, and shaking his head, which was always a little too heavy for him, set himself steadily and zealously to the work of eating his dinner, after which he would say each time: 'Now comes the happy moment,' and light a cigarette.
He used to receive everyone, at any time, everywhere. Often he would be still asleep like Onegin, or tossing on his bed, which creaked under him, and two or three Slavs would be in his bedroom smoking with desperate haste; he would get up heavily, souse himself with water, and at the same moment proceed to instruct them; he was never bored, never found them a burden ; he could talk without being tired, with the same freshness of mind, to the cleverest or the stupidest man. This lack of discrimination sometimes led to very funny incidents.