242
VLADIMIR DUDINTSEV
glitter of gold on one's dress or weapons was regarded as the
height of fashion. But in our days none of us would venture to
appear in society with a gold chain across our belly or any vestige
of gold even on a tie pin. The prestige of gold is declining. And
where is the prestige involved in owning expensive fabrics? I
can vouch for the fact that even the most expensive modem
fabrics are finally going out of fashion. To flaunt riches nowa–
days is a sign of spiritual backwardness.
"What a way of dealing with materiaJ values that bandit
had,
if
you please! It would be curious to see what will replace
material objects," the personnel manager said. This story had
jarred him somewhat because he was sporting just then a very
expensive tweed suit with broadly cut shoulders, and
his
wife,
on visiting the laboratory, had carried a substantial silver fox
over her arm.
"What things are you referring to? There are things and
things. The bandit realized this and pondered over it. He grasped
that the worship of material objects was being inexorably re–
placed by the concept of the beauty of the human soul, which
he knew could neither be bought nor stolen. You cannot
make anyone love you by force of arms. The beauty of the soul
is free. The soul occupied the foreground as soon as gold and
velvet surrendered their position. At present, Cinderellas in
cotton dresses triumph over princesses in silks. The beauti–
ful cut of a cheap dress constitutes its main value, and that is
no longer a material value. The style of a dress bespeaks the
taste, the character of the person who created and who selected
that style for himself. And it is no accident that many prin–
cesses, who have not lost their souls, have begun to dress like
Cinderellas. And
if
we meet some woman laden with furs
and fine fabrics, we are no longer enraptured by the lavish–
ness of her apparel, but, on the contrary, we shy away from
her as from a spiritual freak who is bent upon making a public
display of herself."
"My bandit observed this. He suddenly discovered that,
