The days glided by one after the other, like the beads of a rosary, and grew into weeks and months.

Every Saturday Pavel's friends gathered in his house; and each meeting formed a step up a long stairway, which led somewhere into the distance, gradually lifting the people higher and higher.

But its top remained invisible.
New people kept coming.

The small room of the Vlasovs became crowded and close.

Natasha arrived every Saturday night, cold and tired, but always fresh and lively, in inexhaustible good spirits.