d looked to
see whether there were possibly a letter there. That was a disgraceful
thing to do, wasn't it? But I felt then that I had to satisfy myself. I
wonder whether I can make you understand. It wasn't jealousy exactly,
because I had never felt that I had had any very strong right over Vera,
considering the way that she had married me; but I don't think I ever
loved her more than I did during those weeks, and she was unattainable.
I was lonely, Ivan Andreievitch, that's the truth. Everything seemed to
be slipping away from me, and in some way Alexei Petrovitch Semyonov
seemed to accentuate that. He was always reminding me of one day or
another when I had been happy with Vera long ago--some silly little
expedition we had taken--or he was doubtful about my experiments being
any good, or he would recall what I had felt about Russia at the
beginning of the war.... All in a very kindly way, mind you. He was more
friendly than he had ever been, and seemed to be altogether
softer-hearted. But he made me think a great deal about Vera. He talked
often so much. He thought that I ought to look after her more, and I
explained that that wasn't my right.

"The truth is that ever since Nina's birthday-party I had been anxious.
I knew really that everything was right. Vera is of course the soul of
honour--but something had occurred then which made me....

"Well, well, that doesn't matter now. The only point is that I was
thinking of Vera a great deal, and wondering how I could make her happy.
She wasn't happy. I don't know how it was, but during those weeks just
before the Revolution we were none of us happy. We were all uneasy as
though we expected something were going to happen--and we were all
suspicious....

"I only tell you this because then you will see why it was that the
Revolution broke upon me with such surprise. I had been right inside
myself, talking to nobody, wanting nobody to talk to me. I get like that
sometimes, when words seem to mean so much that it seems dangerous to
throw them about.... And perhaps it is. But silence is dangerous too.
Everything is dangerous if you are unlucky by nature....

"I had been indoors all that Monday working at my invention, and
thinking about Vera, wondering whether I'd speak to her, then afraid of
my temper (I have a bad temper), wanting to know what was the truth,
thinking at one moment that if she cared for some one else that I'd go
away...and then suddenly angry and jealous,