THE SWEET-SCENTED NAME
up a newspaper you only read about horrors and shameful happenings."
She had said something which she herself did not believe, in order to divert the boy's attention. Serezha had smiled grimly and then continued:
"But, Auntie Nadia, how bad it all is! Just think what is going on all around us. Don't you think it dreadful that one of the best of people, an old, old man, went away from his home to find a place in which to die? It must have been because he saw more plainly than we do the horrors around us, and he couldn't endure to live any longer. So he went away and died. Terrible!"
And after a little silence he went on:
"Auntie Nadia, I tell you just what I think, because you're always kind to me and you understand—I don't want to live at all in a world where such things happen. I know I'm just as weak as everybody else, and what is there for me to do? Only by degrees to begin to get used to it all. Auntie, Nekrasof was right when he said, 'It is good to die young.'"
Nadezhda Alexevna remembered that she had felt anxious about the child and had had a long talk with him. It seemed as if he
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