The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-10-12
BETRAYED BY LOVE.

Ka39sky was q born genius, destined II
time to soar to tho dizzy heights of pro
fessionai chair. So at least said his profess
ors at the University of St. Petersburg.
We students likewise held him in awe and
hedged him around with reverential ostra-
cisIn.
That same Kaffsky used to squander his
days and nights over mathematics and
chemistry and half dozen kindred sci
ences, as if life were to LAST fer eternity.
We did not believe in d lnaH having So
many irons in the fire, and we limited QUE
own efforts to the acoomp liShment of one
single tasS-the regeneration OF mankind
as preliminary step to the remodellng OF
Russian society.
We had weighed Kaffsky in the political
balance-the only one in vogue at RUSSIAN
universities ter years ago-and had found
him sadly wanting.
He was a member of none of the three
churches, outside of which there is no sal
vation-that of the sworn conspirators,
who edited a forbidden political journal,
Land and Liberty. Matched plots against
the state and sometimes helped to carry
them out; that ef unsworn conspirators,
from whom the former were usually rs
cruited, and the bulk Of students who
sympathized with everything and every
body who embarrassed the government.
And to crown all, we had just heard of
his impending marriage "a nice time to
be thinking Of marrying and feathering
his nest" we remarked to each other,
'sjust when the pillars OF the social edifice
are giving way and we are doing our best
to pull theInslaown, in order to build UP
something betterl'
When the name of the future bride was
mentioned, those among us who knew her
were staggered bit. Anna Pavlona
Smirnova was not Venus. But If she
had much less beauty than her photograph
which is a common failing of women
she had good deal more wit, which is
not by any means SO common.
Although apparently young enough to
be his daughter. Anna Pavlona was Kaff
sky's senior by five or six years, and to
make matters still more mixed she was a
ned radical at heart.
Formerly her democratio views had got
her into hot water with the authorities,
and it was not without considerable diff
Guilty that she had obtained her present
position as teacher in a girls gymnasy
which enabled hor to live in modest com
potency with her widowed mother.
The police, we knew, had twice or thrice
made elaborate, inquiries about Kaffsky,
had noted his comipgs in and goings out
and had set watch upon his actions.
Platof, when arrested week ago, CHANGED
to have Kaffsky's card in his pocket and
was subjected to a long secret cross ex-
animation about his dealings with him.
'sAs we'll suspect the stone sphinxes at
the N1llolai Bridge as that piece Of stuck
up seifishness called Kefsky," exclaimed
LaVrOH.
s'Tarere must be some reason for the sus-
picion,'' cried Brodsky. "There's always
fire where there's smoke, and as we know
there's no fro here then there cannot pos
sibiy be any READ smoke It's matter of
smoked glass sReetacles.
This remark struck us all as the acme
of cleFernogs. 1t was warmly applauded.
'sWeIl. bus |ho can have smoked the gov
ernn,ent's spsctsclesS'' somebody asked
"Booxzrarl BoormanI He alone has
grudge against yKafsky," cried half
dozen voices.
Noxy, nome of us had doubt that he
was the Judas Iscariot. His hangdog ex
preston, his slouching gait, his furtive
glance and stammering deyiltry pro-
clsdmed the nature of the spirit that lived
AMI worked within him.
I,he present case strengthened our suG-
piston, for Boorman and Kaffsky had
qrtarrsled years before.
Summer vacations were at hand. The
Last of the examinations would take place
IN ten days, and then we should dispense
over the length and breadth Of the empire,
many of us never to return again.
Suddenly we were stunned and stupefled
by bolt from the blue in the shape Of a
ruInor that Kaffsky had been arrested.
lie and A1exeieff had gone to the theater
the night before. They had walked home
together and made an appointment for the
morrow at the university, but at about 2
a. ~ Kaffsky had been spirited away and
was now in the secret wing Of the Lithu-
anian fortress.
q written request was presented by some
of tho professors, who were beside them
selves with indignation, that Kaffsky
shoaIld be released on bail, just to finish
his examinations and take his degree, for
theg knew very well it was all a misunder-
staading. -
But to our utmost establishment their re-
QUEST was refused, and Kaffsky was re.
moged from the Lithuanian fortress only
to he ilnmured in the more terrible fortress
of Peter and Paul.
The excitement caused by the arrest was
assuming dangerous proportions. Nobody
had cared rap for Kaffsky week before,
and he was already most popular hero
noW.
Perhaps Ii WAS hatred for the heartless
tnfer1ner-who had also been arrested no
DOUBT to save him from being lynohed-
and sympathy for Anna Pavlona, whose
woraanly feelings had got the better of her
philosophy. She bad completely broken
down.
she had been taken to her bed, had re-
fused all food, had forwarded petition aft
CIR petition to the minister of the interior,
and when it became clear that she might
juss as well be sowing salt Oh the seashore
her mind gave way. The doctors sent her
mother and herself in post haste to the
Crimea.
La October few of us met in st. Pc
tersDurg once more but only a few. The
pollee had 1nnde tremendous haul among
the students tho day The university closed
SESSION, and many were now in their dis
tant native villages, expelled from the
7r,5issar.if1, si,ora il, l7riSon others apniyf