ully_ pleased. But he wouldn't come. It was as though he suspected
that I was laying a trap for him."

"But what have you noticed about him otherwise?"

"Well, I've seen very little of him. He's sulky just now. He suspected
Lawrence, of course--always after that night of Nina's party. But I
think that he's reassured again. And of course it's all so ridiculous,
because there's nothing to suspect, absolutely nothing--is there?"

"Absolutely nothing," I answered firmly.

He sighed with relief. "Oh, you don't know how glad I am to hear that,"
he said. "Because, although I've _known_ that it was all right, Vera's
been so odd lately that I've wondered--you know how I care about Vera
and--"

"How do you mean--odd?" I sharply interrupted.

"Well--for instance--of course I've told nobody--and you won't tell any
one either--but the other night I found her crying in the flat, sitting
up near the table, sobbing her heart out. She thought every one was
out--I'd been in my room and she hadn't known. But Vera, Durward--Vera
of all people! I didn't let her see me--she doesn't know now that I
heard her. But when you care for any one as I care for Vera, it's awful
to think that she can suffer like that and one can do nothing. Oh,
Durward, I wish to God I wasn't so helpless! You know before I came out
to Russia I felt so old; I thought there was nothing I couldn't do, that
I was good enough for anybody. And now I'm the most awful ass. Fancy,
Durward! Those poems of mine--I thought they were wonderful. I
thought--"

He was interrupted by a sudden sharp crackle like a fire bursting into a
blaze quite close at hand. We both sprang to the windows, threw them
open (they were not sealed, for some unknown reason), and rushed out on
to the balcony. The scene in front of us was just what it had been
before--the bubble clouds were still sailing lazily before the blue, the
skaters were still hovering on the ice, the cart of wood that I had
noticed was vanishing slowly into the distance. But from the
Liteiny--just over the bridge--came a confused jumble of shouts, cries,
and then the sharp, unmistakable rattle of a machine-gun. It was funny
to see the casual life in front of one suddenly pause at that sound. The
doll-like skaters seemed to spin for a moment and then freeze; one
figure began to run across the ice. A small boy came racing down our
street shouting. Several men ran out from doorways and stood looking up
into the sky, as though th