第36章 XXI

Two years previous to those events a strong and handsome young girl of an eastern type, Katia Turchaninova, came from the Don military settle-ments to St. Petersburg to study in the university college for women. In that town she met a stu-dent, Turin, the son of a district governor in the Simbirsk province, and fell in love with him. But her love was not of the ordinary type, and she had no desire to become his wife and the mother of his children. He was a dear comrade to her, and their chief bond of union was a feeling of re-volt they had in common, as well as the hatred they bore, not only to the existing forms of gov-ernment, but to all those who represented that government. They had also in common the sense that they both excelled their enemies in culture, in brains, as well as in morals. Katia Turchan-inova was a gifted girl, possessed of a good mem-ory, by means of which she easily mastered the lec-tures she attended. She was successful in her ex-aminations, and, apart from that, read all the new-est books. She was certain that her vocation was not to bear and rear children, and even looked on such a task with disgust and contempt. She thought herself chosen by destiny to destroy the present government, which was fettering the best abilities of the nation, and to reveal to the people a higher standard of life, inculcated by the latest writers of other countries. She was handsome, a little inclined to stoutness: she had a good com-plexion, shining black eyes, abundant black hair.

She inspired the men she knew with feelings she neither wished nor had time to share, busy as she was with propaganda work, which consisted chiefly in mere talking. She was not displeased, how-ever, to inspire these feelings; and, without dress-ing too smartly, did not neglect her appearance.

She liked to be admired, as it gave her opportuni-ties of showing how little she prized what was valued so highly by other women.

In her views concerning the method of fighting the government she went further than the majority of her comrades, and than her friend Turin; all means, she taught, were justified in such a struggle, not excluding murder. And yet, with all her revo-lutionary ideas, Katia Turchaninova was in her soul a very kind girl, ready to sacrifice herself for the welfare and the happiness of other people, and sincerely pleased when she could do a kind-ness to anybody, a child, an old person, or an ani-mal.

She went in the summer to stay with a friend, a schoolmistress in a small town on the river Volga.

Turin lived near that town, on his father's estate.

He often came to see the two girls; they gave each other books to read, and had long discussions, expressing their common indignation with the state of affairs in the country. The district doctor, a friend of theirs, used also to join them on many oc-casions.

The estate of the Turins was situated in the neighbourhood of the Liventsov estate, the one that was entrusted to the management of Peter Nikolaevich Sventizky. Soon after Peter Niko-laevich had settled there, and begun to en-force order, young Turin, having observed an in-dependent tendency in the peasants on the Livent-sov estate, as well as their determination to up-hold their rights, became interested in them. He came often to the village to talk with the men, and developed his socialistic theories, insisting par-ticularly on the nationalisation of the land.

After Peter Nikolaevich had been murdered, and the murderers sent to trial, the revolutionary group of the small town boiled over with indigna-tion, and did not shrink from openly expressing it. The fact of Turin's visits to the village and his propaganda work among the students, became known to the authorities during the trial. A search was made in his house; and, as the police found a few revolutionary leaflets among his ef-fects, he was arrested and transferred to prison in St. Petersburg.

Katia Turchaninova followed him to the metrop-olis, and went to visit him in prison. She was not admitted on the day she came, and was told to come on the day fixed by regulations for visits to the prisoners. When that day arrived, and she was finally allowed to see him, she had to talk to him through two gratings separating the pris-oner from his visitor. This visit increased her in-dignation against the authorities. And her feel-ings become all the more revolutionary after a visit she paid to the office of a gendarme officer who had to deal with the Turin case. The offi-cer, a handsome man, seemed obviously disposed to grant her exceptional favours in visiting the prisoner, if she would allow him to make love to her. Disgusted with him, she appealed to the chief of police. He pretended--just as the officer did when talking officially to her--to be power-less himself, and to depend entirely on orders coming from the minister of state. She sent a petition to the minister asking for an interview, which was refused.

Then she resolved to do a desperate thing and bought a revolver.