he repeated my
earlier sentence.

"What is it?" she asked, looking at me defiantly.

"I'd like to give it you alone," I said.

"Whatever you say to me it is right that Boris should hear," she
answered.

I tried to forget that Grogoff was there. I went on:

"Well then, Nina, you must know what I want to say. They are heartbroken
at your leaving them. You know of course that they are. They beg you to
come back.... Vera and Nicholas too. They simply won't know what to do
without you. Vera says that you have been angry with her. She doesn't
know why, but she says that she will do her very best if you come back,
so that you won't be angry any more.... Nina, dear, you know that it is
they whom you really love. You never can be happy here. You know that
you cannot.... Come back to them! Come back! I don't know what it was
that Alexei Petrovitch said to you, but whatever it was you should not
listen to it. He is a bad man and only means harm to your family. He
does indeed...."

I paused. She had never moved whilst I was speaking. Now she only said,
shaking her head, "It's no good, Ivan Andreievitch.... It's no good."

"But why? Why?" I asked. "Give me your reasons, Nina."

She answered proudly, "I don't see why I should give you any reasons,
Ivan Andreievitch. I am free. I can do as I wish."

"There's something behind this that I don't know," I said. "I ought to
know.... It isn't fair not to tell me. What did Alexei Petrovitch say to
you?"

But she only shook her head.

"He had nothing to do with this. It is my affair, Ivan Andreievitch. I
couldn't live with Vera and Nicholas any longer."

Grogoff then interfered.

"I think this is about enough...." he said. "I have given you your
opportunity. Nina has been quite clear in what she has said. She does
not wish to return. There is your answer." He cleared his voice and went
on in rather a higher tone: "I think you forget, Ivan Andreievitch,
another aspect of this affair. It is not only a question of our private
family disputes. Nina has come here to assist me in my national work. As
a member of the Soviet I may, without exaggeration, claim to have an
opportunity in my hands that has been offered in the past to few human
beings. You are an Englishman, and so hidebound with prejudices and
conventions. You may not be aware that there has opened this week the
greatest war the world has ever seen--the war of the proletariats
against the bourgeoisies and capitalists of