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"'It doesn't matter, said another. 'There'll be plenty of bread now. "And indeed what did names matter now? I couldn't believe my eyes or my ears, Ivan Andreievitch. It looked too much like Paradise and I'd been deceived so often. So I determined to be very cautious. 'You've been taken in, Nicolai Leontievitch, many many times.
That's what we all feel, Nicolai Leontievitch, so that you needn't have any fear she's too far above all of us. And I only want to be your friend and hers, and to help you in any way I can." Markovitch held out both his hands. "You're right," he cried. "She's above us all. It's true that she's an angel, and we are all her servants. You have helped me by saying what you have, and I won't forget it.
"Zdras te, Nicolai Leontievitch," I said. Then I did not disturb him but sat down on a rickety chair and waited. Ink dripped from his table on to the floor. One bottle lay on its side, the ink oozing out, other bottles stood, some filled, some half-filled, some empty.
Then, in quite another tone, he remarked to me: "By the way, Ivan Andreievitch, what about your friend Mr. Lawrence? He's in a position of very considerable danger where he is with Wilderling. They tell me Wilderling may be murdered at any moment." Some force stronger than my will drove me to look at Vera. I saw that Nicolai Leontievitch also was looking at her.
It may seem strange that the British Embassy should have chosen so uncouth a host as Nicolai Leontievitch for their innocent secretaries, but it was only the more enterprising of the young men who preferred to live in a Russian family; most of them inhabited elegant flats of their own, ornamented with coloured stuffs and gaily decorated cups and bright trays from the Jews' Market, together with English comforts and luxuries dragged all the way from London.
Only cynics like Alexei doubt he doubts everything. And he cannot leave anything alone. He must smear everything with his dirty finger. But he must leave Russia alone... I tell him...." He broke off. "If Russia fails now," he spoke very quietly, "my life is over. I have nothing left. I will die." "Come, Nicolai Leontievitch," I said, "you mustn't let yourself go like that.
"I may be young and only an Englishman but I shouldn't wonder if I don't understand better than you think. You try and see.... And I'll tell you another thing, Nicolai Leontievitch, I loved your wife myself loved her madly and she was so good to me and so far above me, that I saw that it was like loving one of the angels.
Nicolai Leontievitch sat at a table under the little window, and his favourite position was to sit with the chair perched on one leg and so, rocking in this insecure position, he brooded over his bottles and glasses and trays. This room was so dark even in the middle of the day that he was often compelled to use a lamp.
"Hullo, Nicolai Leontievitch," Bohun said, trying to be unconcerned. "What are you doing here?" "Came to see Ivan Andreievitch," he said. "Wasn't here; I was going to write to him." Bohun then lit a candle and discovered that the place was in a very considerable mess. Some one had been sifting my desk, and papers and letters were lying about the floor.
Well, that's the Alliance in very truth ... yes.... How's London, gentlemen? Yes, golubchik, that small tin the grey one. No, durak, the small one. Dr. Semyonov sent a message. Pray make yourselves comfortable, but don't raise your heads. They may turn their minds in this direction at any moment again. We've had them once already this afternoon. That you, Ivan Leontievitch?
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