She compressed her lips and shook her head.  She harboured no evil thoughts against any one, she declared—­and perhaps nothing that happened was unnecessary.  On these words, pronounced low and sounding mysterious in the half obscurity of the ante-room, we parted with an expressive and warm handshake.  The grip of her strong, shapely hand had a seductive frankness, a sort of exquisite virility.  I do not know why she should have felt so friendly to me.  It may be that she thought I understood her much better than I was able to do.  The most precise of her sayings seemed always to me to have enigmatical prolongations vanishing somewhere beyond my reach.  I am reduced to suppose that she appreciated my attention and my silence.  The attention she could see was quite sincere, so that the silence could not be suspected of coldness.  It seemed to satisfy her.  And it is to be noted that if she confided in me it was clearly not with the expectation of receiving advice, for which, indeed she never asked.

II

Our daily relations were interrupted at this period for something like a fortnight.  I had to absent myself unexpectedly from Geneva.  On my return I lost no time in directing my steps up the Boulevard des Philosophes.

Through the open door of the drawing-room I was annoyed to hear a visitor holding forth steadily in an unctuous deep voice.

Mrs. Haldin’s armchair by the window stood empty.  On the sofa, Nathalie Haldin raised her charming grey eyes in a glance of greeting accompanied by the merest hint of a welcoming smile.  But she made no movement.  With her strong white hands lying inverted in the lap of her mourning dress she faced a man who presented to me a robust back covered with black broadcloth, and well in keeping with the deep voice.  He turned his head sharply over his shoulder, but only for a moment.

“Ah! your English friend.  I know.  I know.  That’s nothing.”

He wore spectacles with smoked glasses, a tall silk hat stood on the floor by the side of his chair.  Flourishing slightly a big soft hand he went on with his discourse, precipitating his delivery a little more.

“I have never changed the faith I held while wandering in the forests and bogs of Siberia.  It sustained me then—­it sustains me now.  The great Powers of Europe are bound to disappear—­and the cause of their collapse will be very simple.  They will exhaust themselves struggling against their proletariat.  In Russia it is different.  In Russia we have no classes to combat each other, one holding the power of wealth, and the other mighty with the strength of numbers.  We have only an unclean bureaucracy in the face of a people as great and as incorruptible as the ocean.  No, we have no classes.  But we have the Russian woman.  The admirable Russian woman!  I receive most remarkable letters signed by women.  So elevated in tone, so courageous, breathing such a noble ardour of service!