The narrator truly appreciates the unconditional and uncritical love that he gets from Helga. So much so that he never revealed to her that he was a spy. He says it wouldn't have mattered to her one bit. She was happy with him the way he was and she believed that he meant all the nutty things he said at parties and on the radio. They had a wonderful life and Helga often entertained the troops. That is how the narrator lost her. She was entertaining the troops at Crimea and the Russians took it back. She was presumed dead. The narrator hired a private detective to hunt down any word of her, but he found nothing. The narrator was once a part of a nation of two, "and when that nation ceased.....
