At Easter in April 1918 the electric arc-lights hummed cheerfully in the circus auditorium and it was black with people right up to the domed roof.
A tall, crisp, military figure, Talberg stood in the arena counting the votes at a show of hands. This was the end of the sharovary, there was to be a Ukrainian state but a 'hetmanite' Ukraine - they were electing the 'Hetman of All the Ukraine'.
'We're safely insulated from that bloody comic opera in Moscow', said Talberg, his strange Hetmanite uniform clashing with the dear familiar old wallpaper in the Turbins' apartment.
The clock's tonk-tank was choked with scorn and the water drained away from the bowl.
Nikolka and Alexei found that they had nothing in common with Talberg.
Talking to him would in any case have been extremely difficult because Talberg lost his temper whenever the conversation turned to politics and especially on those occasions when Nikolka was tactless enough to begin with the remark:
'What was it that you were saying in March, Sergei . . .?'
Then Talberg would instantly bare his strong, widely-spaced teeth, yellow sparks would flash in his eyes and he would start to lose his temper.
Conversation thus went out of fashion.
Comic opera . . .
Elena knew what those words meant on her husband's puffy, Baltic-German lips.
But now the comic opera was becoming a real threat, and this time not to the sharovary, not to the Bolsheviks in Moscow, not just to other people, but to Sergei Talberg himself.
Every man has his star and it was with good reason that court astrologers of the Middle Ages cast their horoscopes to predict the future.
They were wise to do so.
Sergei Talberg, for instance, had been born under a most unfortunate, most unsuitable star.
Life would have been fine for Talberg if everything had proceeded along one definite straight line, but events in the City at that time did not move in a straight line; they followed fantastic zig-zags and Sergei Talberg tried in vain to guess what was coming next.
He failed.
Still far from the City, maybe a hundred miles away, a railroad car stood on the tracks, brilliantly lit.
In that car, like a pea in a pod, a clean-shaven man sat talking, dictating to his clerks and his aides.
Woe to Talberg if that man were to reach the City - and he might!
Everybody had read a certain issue of the Gazette, everybody knew the name of Captain Talberg as a man who had voted for the Hetman.
In that newspaper there was an article written by Sergei Talberg, and the article declared:
'Petlyura is an adventurer, who threatens the country with destruction from his comic-opera regime . . .'
'You must understand, Elena, that I can't take the risk of having to go into hiding and facing the uncertainties of the immediate future here.
Don't you agree?'
Elena said nothing in reply, being a woman of pride.
'I think,' Talberg went on, 'that I shall have no difficulty in getting through to the Don by way of Roumania and the Crimea.
Von Bussow has promised me his co-operation.
They appreciate me.
However, the German occupation has deteriorated into a comic opera.
The Germans are leaving. (Whisper) By my calcula-tions Petlyura will collapse soon, too.
The real power is in the South - Denikin.
You realise, of course, that I can't afford not to be there when the army of the forces of law and order is being forned.
Not to be there would ruin my career - especially as Denikin used to be my divisional commander.
I'm convinced that in three months' time - well, by May at the latest - we shall be back in the City.
Don't be afraid.
No one is going to touch you and in a real emergency you still have your passport in your maiden name.
I shall ask Alexei to make sure that no possible harm comes to you.'
Elena looked up with a jerk.
'Just a moment,' she said, 'shouldn't we tell Alexei and Nikolka at once that the Germans are betraying us?'
Talberg blushed deeply.
'Of course, of course, I will certainly . . .
On second thoughts, you had better tell them yourself.
Although it makes very little real difference to the situation.'
For an instant Elena had a strange feeling, but she had no time to reflect on it. Talberg was kissing her and there was a moment when his two-layered eyes showed only a single emotion -tenderness.
Elena could not prevent herself from bursting into tears, although she cried silently. She was, after all, her mother's daughter and a strong woman.
Then came Talberg's leave-taking with her brothers in the living-room.
A pinkish light shone from the bronze lampstand, flooding the corner of the room.
The piano bared its familiar white teeth and the score of Faust lay open at the passage where the flamboyant lines of notes weave across the stave in thick black clusters and the gaily-costumed, bearded Valentine sings:
'I beg you, beg you for my sister's sake, Have mercy on her - mercy!