Vera to see that she was safe.

"But I didn't. I walked off as slowly as anything. It was awful. They'd
been so good to me, and yet I wasn't thinking of Wilderling at all...."

XIV

Markovitch on that same afternoon came back to the flat early. He also,
like Lawrence, felt the strange peace and tranquillity of the town, and
it seemed inevitably like the confirmation of all his dearest hopes. The
Czar was gone, the Old Regime was gone, the people, smiling and
friendly, were maintaining their own discipline--above all, Vera had
kissed him.

He did not go deeper into his heart and see how strained all their
recent relations must have been for this now to give him such joy. He
left that--it simply was that at last he and Vera understood one
another, she had found that she cared for him after all, and that he was
necessary to her happiness. What that must mean for their future life
together he simply dared not think.... It would change the world for
him. He felt like the man in the story from whom the curse is suddenly
lifted....

He walked home through the quiet town, humming to himself. He fancied
that there was a warmth in the air, a strange kindly omen of spring,
although the snow was still thick on the ground, and the Neva a grey
carpet of ice.

He came into the flat and found it empty. He went into his little room
and started on his inventions. He was so happy that he hummed to himself
as he worked and cut slices off his pieces of wood, and soaked flannel
in bottles, and wrote funny little sentences in his abominable
handwriting in a red notebook.

One need not grudge it him, poor Markovitch. It was the last happy
half-hour of his life.

He did not turn on his green-shaded lamp, but sat there in the gathering
dusk, chipping up the wood and sometimes stopping, idly lost in happy
thoughts.

Some one came in. He peered through his little glass window and saw that
it was Nina. She passed quickly through the dining-room, beyond, towards
her bedroom, without stopping to switch on the light.

Nina had broken the spell. He went back to his table, but he couldn't
work now, and he felt vaguely uneasy and cold. He was just going to
leave his work and find the _Retch_ and settle down to a comfortable
read, when he heard the hall door close. He stood behind his little
glass window and watched; it was Vera, perhaps... it must be... his
heart began eagerly to beat.

It _was_ Vera. At once he saw that she was strang