As always the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.
Hans had slept badly that night, all sorts of strange and oppressive dreams had plagued him. When he appeared for breakfast very late, the dining room was empty and the tables for the most part were already set for lunch. Outside there was an overcast sky again and a cold and damp air that pierced one to the heart.
When he stept into the social room, his first glance fell on Nuscha. She sat in the green-grey, fur-garnished jacket at a small table, busy with needlework. Across from her, leaning casually against the chimney, stood a lean, narrow-shouldered man in a black
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overcoat with very long coattails. His head was big and pointed, his face of yellowish color and very pale skin. Over his low forehead lay close-cropped hair with the same bluish shimmer as his thick handlebar moustache that covered the middle of his square chin.
The two appeared to be in the middle of an enthusiastic conversation. As he opened the door, he saw how the man talkt with a certain violence to Nuscha, who as far as she was concerned kept quiet and lookt at her needlework so untiringly that he didn't know whether she had noticed his entrance. He greeted her, she lookt up and reciprocated his greeting not unfriendly but with a formality that showed a clear restraint. Because she made no move to introduce him to the gentleman by the chimney, he didn't speak to her, as had been his intention at first, rather he went to one of the writing desks standing by the window in order to begin a letter to Fritz.
But he was soon interrupted. Two children approximately four to six years old came into the room, rushed to Nuscha and greeted her in a passionate and affectionate way, while they offered their hand to the gentleman by the chimney in a grave, almost shy manner, and not until her sign. Now they turned back to the young girl and told her all sorts of things that they had seen and experienced. For their age, they spoke perfect French, and Nuscha answered them the same way. Soon after, they all left the room, and from his writing desk he saw them walk out through the garden of the promenade.
"Baron Sopinecki, a Russian Pole by birth, but now he's lived in Petersburg for a long time,"
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he was informed in the hall by the dignified owner of the "Seastar" who in his gold-embroidered cap ruled his large house in the good old nature of a father and personally lookt after every guest and took all meals together with his numerous staff. "I don't know him, until now he has always lived in the casino and has come in the 'Seastar' for the first time. He arrived yester-day in the late evening with the two little ones on the Königsberg steamer, his wife is still in Baden, however, he expects her soon."
Also in the coming days, Nuscha took up the same reserved spot across from him, and he did not make it difficult for her. Sometimes he was very glad to look after himself again now. But then came hours where he missed her, he did not even want to admit it to himself.
Despite the tennis tournament's having long since ended, the young French couple had stayed at the "Seastar" for its recovery from the strains of the sport. One of the two Englishmen likewise appeared to have the intention to stay a little longer in the comfortable house with his sister. He saw her only at meals. The entrance of people had become less because of the unsteady weather, the tables became smaller.
Only one big one was still in the dining room; in the middle of it he saw the gaunt Russian state councillor, always in a long black overcoat, usually also with a black neck tie. Across from him sat Nuscha, most of the time dressed likewise in dark colors and with almost affected simplicity, on either side of her were the children, to whom she distributed the food. They were allowed to speak no word, not once to move, the sharp eye of the father kept a strict rein on them.
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They and Nuscha communicated only through looks or short casually thrown in words, mostly in French but sometimes also in Russian; then no one understood them. But more often he listened to Nuscha talking with her neighbors, the young Englishman and his blonde sister, who probably were now set on her wish for her. She even served them in the language of their country, but she didn't speak it as fluently as French.
