We had been more under his influence than any of us had cared to confess and, in his presence, had checked our natural impulses.

I also was strongly aware of him through Trenchard.

Trenchard seemed now to have a horror of him that could be explained only by the fact that he held him responsible for Marie Ivanovna's death.

"It's a good thing," I thought to myself, "that Semyonov's not here." These hours of waiting, when there was nothing to do, was bad for all our nerves.

Upon this afternoon I remember that after a time silence fell between us.