“I have never been abroad before,” he explained, in a rather inanimate voice now.  Then, after a slight hesitation, altogether different from the agonizing irresolution my first simple question “whether he meant to stay in Geneva” had aroused, he made me an unexpected confidence—­

“The fact is, I have received a sort of mission from them.”

“Which will keep you here in Geneva?”

“Yes.  Here.  In this odious....”

I was satisfied with my faculty for putting two and two together when I drew the inference that the mission had something to do with the person of the great Peter Ivanovitch.  But I kept that surmise to myself naturally, and Mr. Razumov said nothing more for some considerable time.  It was only when we were nearly on the bridge we had been making for that he opened his lips again, abruptly—­

“Could I see that precious article anywhere?”

I had to think for a moment before I saw what he was referring to.

“It has been reproduced in parts by the Press here.  There are files to be seen in various places.  My copy of the English newspaper I have left with Miss Haldin, I remember, on the day after it reached me.  I was sufficiently worried by seeing it lying on a table by the side of the poor mother’s chair for weeks.  Then it disappeared.  It was a relief, I assure you.”

He had stopped short.

“I trust,” I continued, “that you will find time to see these ladies fairly often—­that you will make time.”

He stared at me so queerly that I hardly know how to define his aspect.  I could not understand it in this connexion at all.  What ailed him?  I asked myself.  What strange thought had come into his head?  What vision of all the horrors that can be seen in his hopeless country had come suddenly to haunt his brain?  If it were anything connected with the fate of Victor Haldin, then I hoped earnestly he would keep it to himself for ever.  I was, to speak plainly, so shocked that I tried to conceal my impression by—­Heaven forgive me—­a smile and the assumption of a light manner.

“Surely,” I exclaimed, “that needn’t cost you a great effort.”

He turned away from me and leaned over the parapet of the bridge.  For a moment I waited, looking at his back.  And yet, I assure you, I was not anxious just then to look at his face again.  He did not move at all.  He did not mean to move.  I walked on slowly on my way towards the station, and at the end of the bridge I glanced over my shoulder.  No, he had not moved.  He hung well over the parapet, as if captivated by the smooth rush of the blue water under the arch.  The current there is swift, extremely swift; it makes some people dizzy; I myself can never look at it for any length of time without experiencing a dread of being suddenly snatched away by its destructive force.  Some brains cannot resist the suggestion of irresistible power and of headlong motion.