I never saw them at the Tevkins', but I knew that they
occasionally called on the school-teacher and that she saw a good
deal of them at their house and at various meetings, a fact the
discovery of which produced a disheartening impression on me. It
was as though the sole advantage I enjoyed over Anna--the
possession of money--suddenly had been wiped out
I sometimes wondered whether at the bottom of her heart Elsie did
not feel elated by her close relations with that couple. That she
herself was a stranger to all money interests there could be no
doubt, however. And this was true of Anna and the other children.
Elsie and Moissey were the strongest individualities in the family.
Theirs were truly religious natures, and socialism was their
religion in the purest sense of the term.
Elsie scarcely had any other great interest in life. Her socialism
amused me, but her devotion to it inspired me with reverence. As
for Moissey, good literature, as the term is understood in Russia,
was nearly as much of a passion with him as Marxian socialism.
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