Explore "The Dark Forest" by Hugh Walpole on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The retreat struck us as breathlessly as though we had been whirled by a windstorm into midair on the afternoon of a summer day. At five minutes to three we had been sitting round the table in the garden of the house at M -- -- drinking tea. We were, I remember, very gay. We had heard only the day before of the Russian surrender of Przemysl and that had for a moment depressed us; but as always we could see very little beyond our own immediate Division. Here, on our own Front, we had at last cleared the path before us. On that very afternoon we were gaily anticipating our advance. Even Sister K -- -- who, for religious reasons, took always a gloomy view of the future, was cheerful. She sipped her cherry jam and smiled upon us. Anna Petrovna, imperturbably sewing, calmly sighed her satisfaction.
"Perhaps tomorrow we shall move. I feel like it. It will be splendid to go through the Carpathians -- beautiful scenery, I believe. " Molozov was absent in the town of B -- -- collecting some wagons that had arrived from Petrograd. "He'll be back tonight, I believe," said Sister K -- . "Dear me, what a pleasant afternoon!"