I answered that I had abandoned music, but that my wife played very well.
"Singular thing! Why, in the important events of our life, in those in which a man's fate is decided,--as mine was decided in that moment,--why in these events is there neither a past nor a future?
My relations with Troukhatchevsky the first day, at the first hour, were such as they might still have been after all that has happened.

I was conscious that some frightful misfortune must result from the presence of this man, and, in spite of that, I could not help being amiable to him.

I introduced him to my wife.

She was pleased with him.

In the beginning, I suppose, because of the pleasure of the violin playing, which she adored.