All of us, with our little private histories like bundles on our backs, are venturing out to try our fortune....

What are we going to find?
I remember indeed that early on that afternoon I felt the drama of the whole affair so heavily that I saw in every soldier who passed me a messenger of fate.

They called me to a meal.

Eat! Now! How absurd it seemed! Semyonov watched me cynically: "Eat and then sleep," he said, "or you'll be no use to any one." Afterwards I went back to the kitchen and slept.

That sleep was the end of my melodrama.