There was an unpleasant smell in the air.
But that afternoon I simply didn't care about anything, nothing mattered." I don't think that the sanitars at that time respected Trenchard very greatly.

He wasn't, in any case, a man of authority and his broken stammering Russian wouldn't help him.

Then there is nothing stranger than the fashion in which the Russian language will (if you are a timid foreigner), of a sudden wilfully desert you.

Be bold with it and it may, somewhat haughtily, perhaps, consent to your use of it ...

be frightened of it and it will despise you for ever.