You arrived with startling and terrible news, having decided to inform me of it immediately, audaciously, and forthrightly, banking on my staunch inner resolve, yet showing both pity and compassion for me all the same: ‘I’m afraid you’ll find what I have to say rather distressing. Sergei Nikolaevich will be arriving in a few days’ time.’ You were mistaken somewhat in your estimation of my fortitude—first, I had to deceive myself, placate myself with the contrivances that Sergei N. would be staying only for a short while, that I should simply have to endure these few weeks, that I am patient, am used to and capable of waiting, that I shall see out his brief visit, and that it shall all be quite tolerable. You see, I never in fact doubted that Sergei N. would wind up in Paris sooner or later. After his much vaunted contract in America, he is free to go wherever he pleases during the months when he is not filming—every city outside of Russia lies open to him, and outside of Russia he has only you.…