Unexpectedly Kostia spoke up, his voice quiet over the muffled tread of our shoes on expensive carpet. “That’s a man to follow into shellfire.” “He makes me think . . .” I paused, trying to find the words. “I might only be a student here, but I don’t have to be useless. If one man like him can tow his nation single-handedly through a worldwide economic depression and then a worldwide war, I can learn to give speeches without feeling like a deer caught in klieg lights, can’t I?”
