He told Durward that he'd come to take his place and Durward went without a word, Semyonov went off then with Nikitin, looking about, and making suggestions! He changed some things but not very much.

We had been pretty intimate, all of us, before he came.

I had really felt this last day that Vladimir Stepanovitch and Andrey Vassilievitch were understood by me.

Russians come and go so.

At one moment they are close to you, intimate, open-hearted, then suddenly they shut up, are miles away, look at you with distrust and suspicion.