"Come in!" calls he, harshly.
A tall, slender man, dressed in the latest fashion, enters. Valerian Kyrillowitch Kasin, Sonia's father.
"What joy to meet you here in Paris!" he says to the virtuoso. "We two have enjoyed life together here in our time, you and I!"
"Yes, very much," murmurs Lensky.
"What an atmosphere!" raves Kasin. "It goes to one's head like champagne. I am intoxicated, fairly intoxicated. Guess whom I found again in Paris--our Senta, from Vienna."
"I have no idea whom you mean," says Lensky, with poorly concealed uneasiness.
"The charming girl whose acquaintance we made at the Njikitjin's in Vienna. We named her Senta, because she fell in love with your picture, Boris, quite like the Wagnerian enthusiast with the picture of the Flying Dutchman. I scarcely knew that she had another name."
"It is unbearably close here," murmurs Lensky, and pulls at his collar. "Please open the window, Nikolai."
Nikolai does so, and remains standing near the window.
"I do not remember," says Lensky.