She was not by nature a silent woman. In fact, to hear her cheerful tongue going at times you might almost have thought she enjoyed hearing it herself, and possibly you would not have been very far wrong. But she had learned wisdom and the golden virtue in a bitter school and over more important, though never more puzzling, matters. And concerning any subject she considered better not talked about she could be as silent as the grave, or as loquacious as a prize parrot, and, in the latter case, with just as little import of information. But if she denied herself outside she made up for it inside. She spoke seriously to Paul and feelingly to Hope. She reasoned, she argued, she lectured, but she could not turn them from their curious ways. And surely no sorer trial can any woman be called upon to endure than an insoluble puzzle right under her nose. Not that she could bring herself to let them see that she was beaten. That would have been worse even than the actual fact. They saw, of course, that she was much exercised in her mind about them, and at times they were hard set to evade her pointed sallies. "Serge Petrovitch!" she broke out one day in her brusque, motherly way, "you are not doing your duty by your wife." "How then, Anna Vassilievna?" he answered quietly. "All that she needs at present is rest and she is getting it. You see----" "Oh yes, I see what I see. But all the same--" and a cryptic nod comprehended all she declined to put into words, and startled Pavlof's fears lest her womanly insight should have pierced their shaky armour. "Has she ceased to care for you, then?" and his fears vanished. "I have no reason to suppose her feelings have changed in any way, Anna Vassilievna." "No! Then how in Heaven's name did she ever come to marry you? You have not changed to her. I see that well enough. But she--why, it seems to me that she is absolutely afraid of you at times. Have you been hard to her----?" "Never in my life." "Well, well! It passes belief. Maybe in your long parting she has found--but nay, she is an angel for goodness. That I know, but as cold as ice. And then, if so, why would she follow you here? Well, well! It just means that you will have to begin all over again, Serge Petrovitch. You will have to woo her as you did before." "She will be all right again soon, Anna Vassilievna. It is just that she is worn out with the road." "Ah da! The road has worn her body, no doubt, but not her soul. There is fire and to spare behind that cold face unless I am blind. You must break down the barriers if you want to come into your own again, Serge Petrovitch." "We must give her time, Anna Vassilievna." "Ah da! Time! Life is not long enough to waste in waiting. Let yourself go, Serge Petrovitch. Do as your heart bids you. Your eyes are bright for her, and your heart is soft to her, when you are in here. But when you get in there it is like two icebergs meeting."