Free Doctor Zhivago by Boris Leonidovich Pasternak

childishly simple that he did not conceal his joy at seeing her, as if she were some summer landscape of birch trees, grass, and clouds, and could freely express his enthusiasm about her without any risk of being laughed at.
    As soon as she realized the kind of influence she had on him, she began unconsciously to make use of it. However, it was not until several years later and at a much further stage in their relationship that she took his malleable, easygoing character seriously in hand. By then Pasha knew that he was head over heels in love with her and that it was for life.
    The two boys were playing the most terrible and adult of games, war; moreover, participation in this particular war was punishable by deportation and hanging. Yet the way their woollen caps were tied at the back suggested that they were children, that they still had fathers and mothers who looked after them. Lara thought of them as a grownup thinks of children. Their dangerous amusements had a bloom of innocence that they communicated to everything—to the evening, so shaggy with hoarfrost that it seemed more black than white, to the dark blue shadows in the yard, to the house across the road where the boys were hiding, and, above all, to the continual revolver shots which came from it. " The boys are shooting, " thought Lara. This was how she thought not only of Nika and Pasha but of the whole fighting city. " Good, decent boys, " she thought. " It ' s because they are good that they are shooting. "
19
    They learned that the barricade might be shelled and that their house would be in danger. It was too late to think of going to stay with friends in some other part of Moscow, the quarter was surrounded; they had to find shelter in the neighborhood, within the ring. They thought of the Montenegro.
    It turned out that they were not the first to think of it. The hotel was full. There were many others who shared their predicament. For old time ' s sake the proprietor promised to put them up in the linen room.
    Not to attract attention by carrying suitcases, they packed the most necessary things into three bundles; then they put off moving from day to day.
    Because the employees of the workshop were treated rather like family members, they had continued to work despite the strike. But one dull, cold afternoon there was a ring at the door. Someone had come to complain and to argue. The owner was asked for. Fetisova went instead to pour oil on the troubled waters. A few moments later she called the seamstresses into the hall and introduced them to the visitor. He shook hands all round, clumsily and with emotion, and went away having apparently reached an agreement with Fetisova.
    The seamstresses came back into the workroom and began tying on their shawls and putting on their shabby winter coats.
    " What has happened? " asked Madame Guishar, hurrying in.
    " They ' re calling us out, Madam, we ' re on strike. "
    " But…Have I ever wronged you? " Madame Guishar burst into tears.
    " Don ' t be upset, Amalia Karlovna. We ' ve got nothing against you. We ' re very grateful to you. It ' s not just you and us. Everybody ' s doing the same, the whole world. You can ' t go against everybody, can you? "
    They all went away, even Olia Demina and Fetisova, who whispered to Madame Guishar in parting that she agreed to the strike for the good of the owner and the establishment. But Amalia Karlovna was inconsolable.
    " What black ingratitude! To think that I was so mistaken in these people! The kindness I ' ve lavished on that brat! Well, admittedly she ' s only a child, but that old witch! "
    " They can ' t make an exception just for you, Mother, don ' t you see? " Lara said soothingly. " No one bears you any malice. On the contrary. All that ' s being done now is done in the name of humanity, in defense of the weak, for the good of women and children. Yes, it is. Don ' t shake your head so skeptically. You ' ll see, one day you and I will be better off because of it.