"Kirylo Ivanitch is--is dead."
Khodkine started violently.
"Dead! Ivanitch----!" He turned a quick look at Stepan and at Rowland. "When did this happen?" he questioned eagerly. "And who----?"
His look as though impelled returned to Rowland, who had picked up one of the cigarettes of Monsieur Ivanitch from the table and was now lighting it, very much at his ease. Rowland made no reply, and Tanya, with a gesture of her extended fingers:
"It happened but just now,--this morning, Grisha Khodkine," she said. "For some days Kirylo Ivanitch had been distraught with nerves, in a kind of strange fit of uncertainty. He was frightened.... He bade us keep watch upon the Tree and what lies below it day and night. And to humor him we obeyed. We did not know what was to happen--something strange, Grisha Khodkine----"
As she paused the Russian looked from one to the other in astonishment and mystification.
"Dead!--but how? What happened?"
"This morning," the girl went on, choosing her words carefully, "he attacked Monsieur Rowlan', in the garden, as he was leaving Nemi. Monsieur Rowlan' defended himself, and struck--struck----" Tanya hid her face in her hands, trembling.
"Go on----" said the Russian.
"There is little else to tell," said the girl, raising her pallid face from her hands, "Kirylo fell--He is--dead!"