He led up to the assertion that to go to Russia, to see
Russia, to try to grasp the broad outline of the Russian process,
was the manifest duty of every responsible intelligence that was
free to do as much. And so he was going, and if Prothero cared to
come too--
"Yes," said Prothero, "I should like to go to Russia."
13
But throughout all their travel together that summer Benham was
never able to lift Prothero away from his obsession. It was the
substance of their talk as the Holland boat stood out past waiting
destroyers and winking beacons and the lights of Harwich, into the
smoothly undulating darkness of the North Sea; it rose upon them
again as they sat over the cakes and cheese of a Dutch breakfast in
the express for Berlin. Prothero filled the Sieges Allee with his
complaints against nature and society, and distracted Benham in his
contemplation of Polish agriculture from the windows of the train
with turgid sexual liberalism. So that Benham, during this period
until Prothero left him and until the tragic enormous spectacle of
Russia in revolution took complete possession of him, was as it were
thinking upon two floors.
Pages:
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404