She was not with me, but she was not very far away.

Then Andrey Vassilievitch came back to me.

He told me that he knew that she had loved me--that he had tried to speak of her to others who had known her, but they had, none of them, had real knowledge of her.

Might he speak to me sometimes about her?
"I found that though he irritated me more than ever I liked to talk about her to him.

As I spoke of her he scarcely was present at all and yet he had known her and loved her, and would listen for ever and ever if I wished.
"When the war had lasted some months the fancy came to me that I could get nearer to her by going into it.