Quite rightly you listened to what
others said about me--"
"Oh no," interrupted Nina. "I never listen to anybody."
"Well then," said Semyonov, "we'll say that you were very naturally
influenced by them. And quite right--perfectly right. You were only a
girl then--you are a woman now. I had nothing to say to you then--now I
can help you, give you a little advice perhaps--"
I don't know what Nina replied. She was breathlessly pleased and
excited.
"What I want," he went on, "is the happiness of you all. I was sorry
when I came back to find that Nicholas and Vera weren't such friends as
they used to be. I don't mean that there's anything wrong at all, but
they must be brought closer together--and that's what you and I, who
know them and love them, can do--"
"Yes, yes," said Nina eagerly. Semyonov then explained that the thing
that really was, it seemed to him, keeping them apart were Nicholas's
inventions. Of course Vera had long ago seen that these inventions were
never going to come to anything, that they were simply wasting
Nicholas's time when he might, by taking an honest clerkship or
something of the kind, be maintaining the whole household, and the very
thought of him sitting in his workshop irritated her.
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