lose something of the charm that goes with mystery. There is no
mystery about Elena, at all events; and she sees through her various
adorers with eyes unblinded by sentiment. To an artist who makes love
to her she says "I believe in your repentance and I believe in your
tears But it seems to me that even your repentance amuses you--yes,
and your tears too." Naturally there is no Russian fit to be the mate
of this incarnation of Will. The hero of the novel, and the man who
captures the proud heart of Elena, is a foreigner--a Bulgarian, who
has only one idea, the liberation of his country. He is purposely
drawn in sharp contrast to the cultivated charming Russian gentlemen
with whom he talks. Indeed, he rather dislikes talk, an unusual trait
in a professional reformer. Elena is immediately conquered by the
laconic answer he makes to her question, "You love your country very
dearly?" "That remains to be shown. When one of us dies for her, then
one can say he loved his country." Perhaps it is hypercritical to
observe that in such a case others would have to say it for him.

He proves that he is a man of action in a humorous incident. At a
picnic, the ladies are insulted by a colossal German, even as Gemma is
insulted by a German in "Torrents of Spring." Insarov is not a
conventional person, but he immediately performs an act that is
exceedingly conventional in fiction, though rare enough in real life.
Although he is neither big, nor strong, nor in good health, he
inflicts corporal chastisement on the brute before his lady's
eyes--something that pleases women so keenly, and soothes man's vanity
so enormously, that it is a great pity it usually happens only in
books. He lifts the giant from the ground and pitches him into a pond.
This is one of the very few scenes in Turgenev that ring false, that
belong to fiction-mongers rather than to fiction-masters. Nothing is
more delightful than to knock down a husky ruffian who has insulted