The Diamond Chariot Read Online Free Page B

captain summed up. It was clear from his tone of voice that he was impatient to put an end to this trivial conversation and settle into his newspaper.
    ‘Yes, we have another apartment in Moscow, on Ostozhenka Street. Georges sometimes takes an engagement for the winter at the Bolshoi.’
    At this, Rybnikov finally concealed himself behind Evening Russia and the lady was obliged to fall silent. She nervously picked up the Russian Assembly , ran her eyes over the article on the front page and tossed it aside, muttering:
    ‘My God, how vulgar! Completely undressed, in the road! Could she really have been stripped totally and completely naked? Who is this Countess N.? Vika Olsufieva? Nelly Vorontsova? Ah, it doesn’t matter anyway.’
    Outside the windowpane, dachas, copses of trees and dreary vegetable patches drifted by. The staff captain rustled his newspaper, enthralled.
    Lidina sighed, then sighed again. She found the silence oppressive.
    ‘What’s that you find so fascinating to read?’ she eventually asked, unable to restrain herself.
    ‘Well, you see, it’s the list of officers who gave their lives for the tsar and the fatherland in the sea battle beside the island of Tsushima. It came through the European telegraph agencies, from Japanese sources. The scrolls of mourning, so to speak. They say they’re going to continue it in forthcoming issues. I’m looking to see if any of my comrades-in-arms are there.’ And Vasilii Alexandrovich started reading out loud, with expression, savouring the words. ‘On the battleship Prince Kutuzov-Smolensky : junior flagman, Rear Admiral Leontiev; commander of the vessel, Commodore Endlung; paymaster of the squadron, State Counsellor Ziukin; chief officer, Captain Second Rank von Schwalbe …’
    ‘Oh, stop!’ said Glyceria Romanovna, fluttering her little hand. ‘I don’t want to hear it! When is this terrible war ever going to end!’
    ‘Soon. The insidious enemy will be crushed by the Christian host,’ Rybnikov promised, setting the newspaper aside to take out a little book, in which he immersed himself with even greater concentration.
    The lady screwed her eyes up short-sightedly, trying to make out the title, but the book was bound in brown paper.
    The train’s brakes screeched and it came to a halt.
    ‘Kolpino?’ Lidina asked in surprise. ‘Strange, the express never stops here.’
    Rybnikov stuck his head out of the window and called to the duty supervisor.
    ‘Why are we waiting?’
    ‘We have to let a special get past, Officer, it’s got urgent military freight.’
    While her companion was distracted, Glyceria Romanovna seized the chance to satisfy her curiosity. She quickly opened the book’s cover, held her pretty lorgnette on a gold chain up to her eyes and puckered up her face. The book that the staff captain had been reading so intently was called TUNNELS AND BRIDGES: A concise guide for railway employees .
    A telegraph clerk clutching a paper ribbon in his hand ran up to the station supervisor, who read the message, shrugged and waved his little flag.
    ‘What is it?’ asked Rybnikov.
    ‘Don’t know if they’re coming or going. Orders to dispatch you and not wait for the special.’
    The train set off.
    ‘I suppose you must be a military engineer?’ Glyceria Romanovna enquired.
    ‘What makes you think that?’
    Lidina felt embarrassed to admit that she had peeped at the title of the book, but she found a way out – she pointed to the leather tube.
    ‘That thing. It’s for drawings, isn’t it?’
    ‘Ah, yes.’ Vasilii Alexandrovich lowered his voice. ‘Secret documents. I’m delivering them to Moscow.’
    ‘And I thought you were on leave. Visiting your family, or your parents, perhaps.’
    ‘I’m not married. Where would I get the earnings to set up a family? I’m dog poor. And I haven’t got any parents, I’m an orphan. And in the regiment they used to taunt me for a Tatar because of my squinty eyes.’
    After the stop at