Futility by Gerhardie

All is tumbling, going to ruin. In a month or so all business
will stop, works will close down. The rouble will be value-
less. There will be nothing. . . ’
‘ Now don’t lose courage, Nikolai,’ said Fanny Ivanovna
hopefully. ‘ We shall pull through; somehow we shall;
and then on the other side of the grave we shall be safe.’
‘ Her most optimistic moment in lifel ’ jeered Nikolai
Vasilievich.
‘ It’s a surprising thing what the human soul will stand,
Andrei Andreiech,’ she said. ‘ I can venture only this
explanation; it is habit. You see, the cup is ever filled to
the brim, but—1o I the miracle l the cup expands. No
trouble. None !—And here we are.’ '
‘ Life gets you,’ came from the window ; ‘ sooner or later
it gets you all the same.’
‘ I don’t know what it’s for, why, or who wants it. It
seems so unnecessary, useless, even silly. And yet I cannot
think that it’s all in vain. There must be—perhaps a larger
pattern somewhere in which all these futilities, these shifting
incongruities are somehow reconciled. But shall we know P
Shall we ever know the reason? ’
‘ Philosophy l ’ jeered Nikolai Vasilievich mildly.
‘ Perhaps,’ I said, ‘ when we awaken on the other side of
death and ask to be told the reason, they will shrug their
shoulders and say, “ We don’t know. It is beyond us. D

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Admiral in person and asked for two additional coupés, to
accommodate her and the three sisters. The Admiral was a
sailor and a gentleman. He promised her two coupés.
I forget which wing of the family was the next to apply.
I remember that every day that week our waiting-room was
crowded with petitioners. The Admiral said No. He found
himself saying No innumerable times each day. Now it is an
intrinsic part of the Russian character that it does not accept
No for No. It is constitutionally incapable of doing so. Its
institutions are all a negation of that principle. And what
is more, it refuses to confine that fact to within the Russian
border. It regards it in the light of world-wide applica-
tion, assuming that it is indeed nothing less than human
nature.
The Admiral still said N0. He held that it was not human
nature but just Russian nature, and as an illustration of his
point he meant to show that when an Englishman says No
he does mean N 0. But none of them would understand the
Admiral’s interpretation of No. They had all grown up
with the idea that N o meant Yes after an adequate amount
of pressure and insistence. The pressure was of various
kinds, according to the age, sex and nature of the applicant.
There were tears, entreaties. There were questions, such as
the ‘ object ’ of the Allies in Siberia, since they monopolized
the best trains and refused to help the Russians in their
primary needs. There were direct questions which it was
thought must needs shatter the impregnability of the
Admiral’s N 0, such as, for instance : Did the Admiral wish
to starve them, as he evidently did, by cutting them adrift
from Nikolai Vasilievich, the bread~winner?
The Admiral still said that No was No, and would they
please understand it ? They all replied that No was not the
point, the point being: What were they to do without Nikolai
Vasilievich? Whereon the Admiral replied that when he
said a thing he meant it, this being the sterling value of
British character. But they persisted all the same, treating
him as if he were just human like the rest of them. Then the
Admiral became a little angry. It annoyed him that they
should fail to understand the primary fact that an English-
man was not a Russian and that hence any laxity that held
good in Russian character did not hold good in that of a
native of the British Isles. But the Russians hammered on
in spite of all; till the Admiral was heartily amused that
they should indeed know no better than to think that he
would give in just because they persisted, for the ignorance
of human nature that, he thought, such a belief implied-
a quaint and childish ignorance—began to fascinate him. He
looked at them and looked at them again, as they poured
forth their woes—and marvelled. Indeed, their touching
innocence fascinated him so much that finally he felt he
wanted to humour them, as one is inclined to humour quaint,
unreasonable children who know no better. And it was by
way of humouring them that the Admiral gave way. No
(for once only) was to mean Yes. They thanked him cordi-
ally. He sighed and wiped his forehead with his handker-
chief. The Russian character had won the day.