Impressions and comments / Havelock Ellis.

  • Havelock Ellis
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Impressions and comments / Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2 IMPRESSIONS AND COMMENTS escapii^ centre of gravity and sank gently on to the pavement in a sitting posture. Every few moments people continued to pass within a few inches of her—men, women, couples. Unlike the priest and the Levite in the parable, they never turned away, but pursued their straight course with callous rectitude. Not one seemed so much as to see her. In a minute or two, stimulated perhaps by some sense of the impropriety of her position, she rose to her feet again, without much difficulty, and returned to cling to the wall. A few minutes later I saw a decently-dressed young woman, evidently of the working class, walk quietly, but without an instant's hesita¬ tion, straight up to the figure against the wall. (It was what, in Moscow, the- first passer-by would have done.) I could hear her speaking gently and kindly, though of what she said I could only catch, Where do you live ? No answers were audible, and perhaps none were given. But the sweet Samaritan con¬ tinued speaking gently. At last I heard her say, Come round the corner, and with only the gentle pressure of a hand on the other's arm she guided her round the comer near which they stood, away from the careless
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