He laughed, or sometimes simply looked at his companion, or he would reply in his bad halting Russian with some jest at Semyonov's expense.
Finally, to end this business, if ever a man were affected to the heart by the loss of a friend or a lover, Semyonov was that man.

He was a man too strong in himself and too contemptuous of weakness to show to all the world his hurt.

I myself might have seen nothing had I not always before me the memory of that vision of his face between the trees.

But from that I had proceeded-- It was, I suppose, the first time in his life that the fulfilment of his desire had been denied him.

Had Marie Ivanovna lived, and had he attained with her his complete satisfaction, he would have tired of her perhaps as he had tired of many others, and have remained only the stronger cynic.