170 



Brat ! Still in his teens and falls in love ! Better attend 

 to your Greek and Latin lessons and leave love alone". 

 And even that is lucky, if the matter ends in words. 

 The lad crushed in his first amorous desires by the 

 authoritative denial of his parents, forbidden to utter a 

 word upon the subject, seeing no prospect of release 

 and freedom, buries his secret in his own bosom ; like 

 a snail in a shell shrinks into himself. But his is a shell 

 which opens and closes opens to the first convenient 

 call, and the youngster reveals the tenour of his thoughts. 

 And as this cannot be done where it should, it is done 

 where it should not, in circles where people live more 

 freely and nearer to nature ; in the kitchen, on the street 

 the doors are open for the novice and he enters in his 

 innocence in response to voices which seem the echo of 

 his nature. It is easy to imagine how false and mista- 

 ken his idea. Whilst in his young heart this lad is 

 idealizing woman as the perfect mirror of his finest 

 dreams, the best and highest gift nature can bestow on 

 him, with whose help he may hope to form a strong and 

 healthy family of his own, the denizens of the kitchen 

 and the laundry and the street are disenchanted beings 

 without faith in ideals, whose primary thought is of 

 tomorrow's meal and how they can best exploit the 

 inexperience of youth. On the one hand the timid but 

 insistent demands of 3^outhful nature; on the other the 

 brutal equivalent two three, five roobles. The sugge- 

 stion at first not only offends, but astonishes ; the young- 

 ster knows not what to do, but to avoid offensive remin- 

 ders he strives his utmost by punctual payments to 

 escape all further humiliating mention of his bargain. 



The question arises where to get money? How 

 to keep the sky clear of clouds? And this urgent and 

 secret need results in gradual descent. Resort must be 

 had to tips and presents, stories of fictitious requirements 

 must be invented, loans and trickeries follow, and the 

 history culminates in theft. The ideally moral youth des- 

 cends into the dirt of falsehood and deceit and crime 



