"Have no fears, M. Durward. There is much talk in this country, but we are a lazy people."
"He's of course no more a Russian than you or I," I said to Lawrence, as we started down the quay.
"Oh yes, he is!" Lawrence said. "Quite genuine--not a drop of German blood in spite of the name. But he's a Prussian at heart--a Prussian of the Prussians. By that I don't mean in the least that he wants Germany to win the war. He doesn't--his interests are all here, and you mayn't believe me, but I assure you he's a Patriot. He loves Russia, and he wants what's best for her--and believes that to be Autocracy."
After that Lawrence shut up. He would not say another word. We walked for a long time in silence. The evening was most beautiful. A golden moon flung the snow into dazzling relief against the deep black of the palaces. Across the Neva the line of towers and minarets and chimneys ran like a huge fissure in the golden, light from sky to sky.
"You said there was something you wanted to ask my advice about?"
He looked at me with his long slow considering stare. He mumbled something; then, with a sudden gesture, he gripped my arm, and his heavy body quivering with the urgency of his words he said:
"It's Vera Markovitch.... I'd give my body and soul and spirit for her happiness and safety.... God forgive me, I'd give my country and my honour.... I ache and long for her, so that I'm afraid for my sanity. I've never loved a woman, nor lusted for one, nor touched one in my whole life, Durward--and now... and now... I've gone right in. I've spoken no word to any one; but I couldn't stand my own silence.... Durward, you've got to help me!"
I walked on, seeing the golden light and the curving arc of snow and the little figures moving like dolls from light to shadow. Lawrence! I had never thought of him as an urgent lover; even now, although I could still feel his hand quivering on my arm, I could have laughed at the ludicrous incongruity of romance, and that stolid thick-set figure. And at the same time I was afraid. Lawrence in love was no boy on the threshold of life like Bohun... here was no trivial passion. I realised even in that first astonished moment the trouble that might be in store for all of us.