I climbed the stairs to the flat and found Vera waiting for me. She was
with Uncle Ivan, who, I found to my disappointment, was coming with us.
We started off.
"We can walk across to the Bourse," she said. "It's such a lovely
evening, and we're a little early."
We talked of nothing but the most ordinary things; Uncle Ivan's company
prevented anything else. To say that I cursed him is to put it very
mildly. He had been, I believe, oblivious of all the scenes that had
occurred during the last weeks. If the Last Judgement occurred under his
very nose, and he had had a cosy meal in front of him, he would have
noticed nothing. The Revolution had had no effect on him at all; it did
not seem strange to him that Semyonov should come to live with them; he
had indeed fancied that Nicholas had not "been very well" lately, but
then Nicholas had always been an odd and cantankerous fellow, and he, as
he told me, never paid too much attention to his moods. His one anxiety
was lest Sacha should be hindered from her usual shopping on the morrow,
it being May Day, when there would be processions and other tiresome
things.
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