. Uncle Alexei's very clever."
"Yes, he is," I agreed. "But you haven't told me why you were crying
just now."
She looked at me. She gave a little shiver. "Oh, you do look ill!...
Everything's going wrong together, isn't it?"
And with that she suddenly left me, hurrying away from me, leaving me
miserable and apprehensive of some great trouble in store for all of us.
IV
It is impossible to explain how disturbed I was by Nina's news. Semyonov
living in the flat! He must have some very strong reason for this, to
leave his big comfortable flat for the pokiness of the Markovitches'!
And then that the Markovitches should have him! There were already
inhabitants enough--Nicholas, Vera, Nina, Uncle Ivan, Bohun. Then the
inconvenience and discomfort of Nicholas's little hole as a bedroom! How
Semyonov must loathe it!
From that moment the Markovitches' flat became for me the centre of my
drama. Looking back I could see now how all the growing development of
the story had centred round those rooms. I did not of course know at
this time of that final drama of the Thursday afternoon, but I knew of
the adventure with the policeman, and it seemed to me that the flat was
a cup into which the ingredients were being poured one after another
until at last the preparation would be complete, and then.
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