WITHOUT LOVE
367
them, as they padded over the cloth-covered carpet
in
heavy
galoshes, trailing the ends of kerchiefs and shawls.
"And now they'll be surprised," he thought, trying to syn–
chronize the flow of
his
thoughts with the movement of the sleigh
and lull himself
to
sleep.
The other man was thinking about the purpose of their
sudden departure, about the reception awaiting them at the other
end and about what should be done in the first instance. He
also
thought that Goltsev was asleep, not suspecting that Goltsev was
wide-awake and that it was he himself who was asleep, plunging
in his dreams from pothole to pothole together with
his
thoughts
about revolution, which now, as once before, meant more to
him
than his fur coat and
his
belongings, more than his wife and
child, more than his own life and more than other peoples' lives,
and with which he would not part for anything in the world–
even in his sleep-once he had laid hold of them and kindled
them within himself.
Their eyes opened languidly, of their own accord. They
could not help their surprise. A village lay in a deep other–
worldly trance. The snow glittered. The three horses had broken
file, they had left the road and stood huddled together. The
night was bright and still. The front horse, its head raised, was
gazing over a snowdrift at something left far behind. The moon
shone black and mysterious behind a house tightly swathed in
frosty air. Mter the solemnity of the forest and the blizzard–
swept loneliness of the open country a human dwelling was like
an apparition in a fairy tale. The house seemed conscious of its
awesome magic and was in no hurry to answer the coachman's
knock. It stood silent, unwilling to break its own oppressive spell.
The snow glittered. But soon two voices, unseen to each other,
spoke loudly through the gate. They divided the whole world
between them, these two, as they talked to each other through
the timbers, in the midst of infinite stillness. The man who was
opening the gate took the half which looked North, unfolding
beyond the roof of the house, and the other man, who was wait-
