Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/66

54 hops and other parasitic vines, seemed to have taken fright at the coming of man and to have fled back to the mountains, leaving only the naked, yellow earth behind. Trees had already been felled for some distance, and I realized at once how well our prompt decision for a railroad had been justified. It was evident at a glance that within a very few weeks we should be compelled to transport the trees a considerable distance to the ovens. The storage sheds were filled to capacity with charcoal and great heaps of it lay outside, covered with protecting strips of bark that had been taken from the larger trees. We could have begun at once shipping out the much- needed charcoal but were forced to await the completion of a proper roadbed.

That first afternoon Samsonoff invited me to his house for tea. On the veranda, also already adorned with a transplanted hop vine, I was met by quite a young woman, Madame Vera, his wife. She was a strong contrast to her husband. Whereas Samsonoff had a pale, melancholy face and sad, dreamy eyes under soft ringlets of hair falling well down over his forehead, his wife was the personification of robust health, with gaiety predominating in her brilliantly coloured face, her black, fiery eyes and sensual lips.

They took me through their quarters, composed of a small entrance hall and two rooms. The mud walls, ceiling and floor could have made the most cheerless impression, were it not for the saving adornment of woman's hand, which, with desire to guide it, can always make a cosy nest in a Chinese fang-tzu, a railway car, a ship's cabin or even a prison cell. The floor was covered with Chinese mats, which were also used as hangings for the walls and carried the decorations of artificial flowers, postal cards and photographs. Pieces of bright cloth