"Oh, you _do_ look ill!... Vera went to ask, and there was a rough-looking man there who said that no one could see you, but that you were all right.... One of us ought to have forced a way in--M. Bohun wanted to--but we've all been thinking of ourselves." "What's the matter, Nina?" I asked. "You've been crying." "Nothing's the matter. I'm all right." "No, you're not. You ought to tell me. You trusted me once." "I don't trust any one," she answered fiercely. "Especially not Englishmen." "What's the matter?" I asked again. "Nothing.... We're just as we were. Except," she suddenly looked up at me, "Uncle Alexei's living with us now." "Semyonov!" I cried out sharply, "living with you!" "Yes," she went on, "in the room where Nicholas had his inventions is Uncle Alexei's bedroom." "Why, in Heaven's name?" I cried. "Uncle Alexei wanted it. He said he was lonely, and then he just came. I don't know whether Nicholas likes it or not. Vera hates it, but she agreed at once." "And do you like it?" I asked. "I like Uncle Alexei," she answered. "We have long talks. He shows me how silly I've been." "Oh!" I said... "and what about Nicholas' inventions?" "He's given them up for ever." She looked at me doubtfully, as though she were wondering whether she could trust me. "He's so funny now--Nicholas, I mean. You know he was so happy when the Revolution came. Now he's in a different mood every minute. Something's happened to him that we don't know about." "What kind of thing?" I asked. "I don't know. He's seen something or heard something. It's some secret he's got. But Uncle Alexei knows." "How can you tell?" "Because he's always saying things that make Nicholas angry, and we can't see anything in them at all.... Uncle Alexei's very clever." "Yes, he is," I agreed. "But you haven't told me why you were crying just now." She looked at me. She gave a little shiver. "Oh, you do look ill!... Everything's going wrong together, isn't it?" And with that she suddenly left me, hurrying away from me, leaving me miserable and apprehensive of some great trouble in store for all of us. IV It is impossible to explain how disturbed I was by Nina's news. Semyonov living in the flat! He must have some very strong reason for this, to leave his big comfortable flat for the pokiness of the Markovitches'! And then that the Markovitches should have him! There were already inhabitants enough--Nicholas, Vera, Nina, Uncle Ivan, Bohun. Then the inconvenience and discomfort of Nicholas's little hole as a bedroom! How Semyonov must loathe it!