He stood up very stiff and straight. "Search the house," he said to his men.

Suddenly then Vera's mind concentrated. It was as though, she told me "I came back into the room and saw for the first time what was happening."

"There is no one in the rest of the flat," she said, "and nothing that can interest you."

"That is for me to judge," said the little officer grimly.

"But I a.s.sure you there is nothing," she went on eagerly. "There is only the kitchen and the bath-room and the five bedrooms."

"Whose bedrooms?" said the officer.

"My husband's, my own, my sister's, my uncle's, and an Englishman's,"

she answered, colouring a little.

"Nevertheless we must do our duty.... Search the house," he repeated.

"But you must not go into our bedrooms," she said, her voice rising.

"There is nothing for you there. I am sure you will respect our privacy."

"Our orders must be obeyed," he answered angrily.

"But--" she cried.

"Silence, Madame," he said, furiously, staring at her as though she were his personal, deadly enemy.

"Very well," said Vera proudly. "Please do as you wish."

The officer walked past her with his head up, and the soldiers followed him, their eyes malicious and inquisitive and excited. The sisters stood together waiting. Of course the end had come. They simply stood there fastening their resolution to the extreme moment.

"I must go with them," said Vera. She followed them into her bedroom. It was a very little place and they filled it, they looked rather sheepish now, whispering to one another.

"What's in there?" said the officer, tapping the cupboard.

"Only some clothes," said Vera.

"Open it!" he ordered.

Then the world did indeed stand still. The clock ceased to tick, the little rumble in the stove was silenced, the shuffling feet of one of the soldiers stayed, the movement of some rustle in the wall paper was held. The world was frozen.

"Now I suppose we shall all be shot," was Vera's thought, repeated over and over again with a ludicrous monotony. Then she could see nothing but the little policeman, tumbling out of the cupboard, dishevelled and terrified. Terrified! what that look in his eyes would be! That at any rate she could not face and she turned her head away from them, looking out through the door into the dark little pa.s.sage.

She heard as though from an infinite distance the words:

"Well, there's n.o.body there."

She did not believe him of course. He said that whoever he was, to test her, to tempt her to give herself away. But she was too clever for them.

She turned back and faced them, and then saw, to the accompaniment of an amazement that seemed like thunder in her ears, that the cupboard was indeed empty.

"There is n.o.body," said the black-bearded soldier.

The student looked rather ashamed of himself. The white clothes, the skirts, and the blouses in the cupboard reproached him.

"You will of course understand, Madame," he said stiffly, "that the search was inevitable. Regrettable but necessary. I'm sure you will see that for your own satisfaction...."

"You are a.s.sured now that there is no one here?" Vera interrupted him coldly.

"a.s.sured," he answered.

But where was the man? She felt as though she were in some fantastic nightmare in which nothing was as it seemed. The cupboard was not a cupboard, the policeman not a policeman....

"There is the kitchen," she said.

In the kitchen of course they found nothing. There was a large cupboard in one corner but they did not look there. They had had enough. They returned into the dining-room and there, looking very surprised, his head very high above his collar was Markovitch.

"What does this mean?" he asked.

"I regret extremely," said the officer pompously. "I have been compelled to make a search. Duty only... I regret. But no one is here. Your flat is at liberty. I wish you good-afternoon."

Before Markovitch could ask further questions the room was emptied of them all. They tramped out, laughing and joking, children again, the hall door closed behind them.

Nina clutched Vera's arm.

"Vera.... Vera, where is he?"

"I don't know," said Vera.

"What's all this?" asked Nicholas.

They explained to him but he scarcely seemed to hear. He was radiant--smiling in a kind of ecstasy.

"They have gone? I am safe?"

In the doorway was the little policeman, black with grime and dust, so comical a figure that in reaction from the crisis of ten minutes before, they laughed hysterically.

"Oh look! look!..." cried Nina. "How dirty he is!"

"Where have you been?" asked Vera. "Why weren't you in the cupboard?"

The little man's teeth were chattering, so that he could scarcely speak....

"I heard them in the other room. I knew that the cupboard would be the first place. I slipped into the kitchen and hid in the fireplace."

"You're not angry, Nicholas?" Vera asked. "We couldn't send him out to be shot."

"What does that matter?" he almost impatiently brushed it aside. "There are other things more important." He looked at the trembling dirty figure. "Only you'd better go back and hide again until it's dark. They might come back...."

He caught Vera by the arm. His eyes were flames. He drew her with him back into her little room. He closed the door.