than ever and in my distress I had suddenly a flash of the peaceful and serene life that had been mine in the dingy room at the Guild; in another moment I saw nothing but the dim lamplight.
After a long while the letter was finished. It was a lengthy letter and I felt tired, for I, too, seemed to have become weak and timid as compared with my former self. We decided that both the advertisement and the letter should be dispatched the next day. Unconsciously we both straightened our backs and seemed to feel, though neither of us said a word, a new courage and unconquerable spirit, and to see a new budding hope.
So this blow actually had an effect of awakening a new spirit in us. My life at the bureau was very much like that of a bird in the hands of a bird-peddler, who gives it just enough millet to keep it from starving but not enough to grow fat on. After a while its wings become feeble from disuse and it can no longer fly even if it should be let out of the cage. Now I have in any case escaped from the prison cage; I want to test my wings in unexplored and spacious skies before I have forgotten how to flap them.
A classified advertisement cannot be expected to produce results right away, naturally. Even translating is no easy matter. Things which I had read before and which I thought I had understood presented a thousand difficulties, when it came to actual translation. Thus my work was slowed down. But I was determined to overcome my difficulties, and the soiled edges of my dictionary (which had been almost new half a month ago) testified to my conscientiousness. The editor of The Friend of Liberty had told me that his publication would never turn down a good manuscript.
Unfortunately I did not have a quiet room to work in.
