She didn’t answer my question.  She put her hand on my arm, pressing close up to me as though she wanted my protection.

“Durdles, I want him for my friend.  I do—­I do.  When I look at him and think of Boris and the others I don’t want to speak to any one of them again.  I only want him for my friend.  I’m getting old now, and they can’t treat me as a child any longer.  I’ll show them.  I know what I’ll do if I can’t have the friends I want and if Vera is always managing me—­I’ll go off to Boris.”

“My dear Nina,” I said, “you mustn’t do that.  You don’t care for him.”

“No, I know I don’t—­but I will go if everybody thinks me a baby.  And Durdles—­Durdles, please—­make him like me—­your Mr. Lawrence.”

She said his name with the funniest little accent.

“Nina, dear,” I said, “will you take a little piece of advice from me?”

“What is it?” she asked doubtfully.

“Well, this....  Don’t you make any move yourself.  Just wait and you’ll see he’ll like you.  You’ll make him shy if you—­”

But she interrupted me furiously in one of her famous tempers.

“Oh, you Englishmen with your shyness and your waiting and your coldness!  I hate you all, and I wish we were fighting with the Germans against you.  Yes, I do—­and I hope the Germans win.  You never have any blood.  You’re all cold as ice....  And what do you mean spying on me?  Yes, you were—­sitting behind and spying!  You’re always finding out what we’re doing, and putting it all down in a book.  I hate you, and I won’t ever ask your advice again.”

She rushed off, and I was following her when the bell rang for the beginning of the second part.  We all went in, Nina chattering and laughing with Bohun just as though she had never been in a temper in her life.

Then a dreadful thing happened.  We arrived at the box, and Vera, Bohun, and Nina sat in the seats they had occupied before.  I waited for Lawrence to sit down, but he turned round to me.

“I say, Durward—­you sit next to Nina Michailovna this time.  She’ll be bored having me all the while.”

“No, no!” I began to protest, but Nina, her voice shaking, cried: 

“Yes, Durdles, you sit down next to me—­please.”

I don’t think that Lawrence perceived anything.  He said very cheerfully, “That’s right—­and I’ll sit behind and see that you all behave.”

I sat down and the second part began.  The second part was wrestling.  The bell rang, the curtains parted, and instead of the splendid horses and dogs there appeared a procession of some of the most obese and monstrous types of humanity.  Almost naked, they wandered round the arena, mountains of flesh glistening in the electric light.  A little man, all puffed up like a poulter pigeon, then advanced into the middle of the arena, and was greeted with wild applause from the gallery.  To this he bowed and then announced in a terrific voice, “Gentlemen,