"
"Ah, I thought you'd come to him," I said.
"Now the points are these," he went on, counting on his thick stubbly
fingers. "First, I love Vera--and when I say love I mean love. Never
been in love before, you know--honest Injun, never.... Never had affairs
with tobacconists' daughters at Cambridge--never had an affair with a
woman in my life--no, never. Used to wonder what was the matter with me,
why I wasn't like other chaps. Now I know. I was waitin' for Vera. Quite
simple. I shall never love any one again--never. I'm not a kid, you
know, like young Bohun--I love Vera once and for all, and that's that..."
"Yes," I said. "And the next point?"
"The next point is that Vera loves me. No need to go into that--but she
does."
"Yes, she does," I said.
"Third point, she's married, and although she don't love her man she's
sorry for him. Fourth point, he loves her. Fifth point, there's a
damned swine hangin' round called Alexei Petrovitch Semyonov.... Well,
then, there you have it."
He considered, scratching his head. I waited. Then he went on:
"Now it would be simpler if she didn't want to be kind to Nicholas, if
Nicholas didn't love her, if--a thousand things were different.
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