Many pass through fire and water, but through copper pipes—only a few.
Lenin’s parents were “sixtiers” of the type who valued nothing for themselves, and her own family was hardly different from her parents’: they and her husband worked a lot, but lived very modestly. Wealth fell on them unexpectedly, and—naively, as it seemed to Lena—was entirely deserved. But in vain she rejoached: reckless money is always a test, a temptation that only a few can withstand.