" Very well, thank you."
" How is Piotr Ivanitch ? "
" Very well, I thank you."
" Why does he never come to see us ? I was only thinking yesterday; he might, thought I, come over once sometime, but he never has—I suppose he is busy ? "
"Very busy," said Alexandr.
" And we didn't see you the other day!" continued Maria Mihalovna. " I had been awake a long while; I asked, where is Nadinka? They tell me she's still asleep. " Well, let her sleep," I said, the whole day in the open air, in the garden, the weather keeps fine, she's tired. At her age she sleeps soundly, not as I do at my time of life; such sleeplessness—would you believe—it grows quite a torment; my nerves, or something, I don't know. Then they bring me coffee; you know I always drink it in bed—and while I was drinking it, I thought: "what does it mean, we've seen nothing of Alexandr Fedoritch ? Can he be well ? " Then I got up, and I look; it's eleven o'clock—a pretty thing, on my word—the servants never told me. I went into Nadinka. She was still asleep. I woke her. " It's time, upon my word, my dear; it's nearly twelve o'clock, what's the matter with you ? " You know I am after her the whole day like a nurse. I sent away the governess on purpose to
have no strangers about. Trust strangers, they say, and God knows what they will do! No ! I undertook her education myself. I look after her strictly, she's never a step out of my sight, and I can say that Nadinka feels this; she doesn't even keep a thought secret from me. I seem to see right through her. Then the cook came up; I talked to him for an hour; then I read a little of the " Memoires du Diable .... ah ! what a pleasant author Sully is ! how agreeably he writes ! Then our neighbour Maria Ivanovna called with her husband; so I never noticed how the morning slipped away; four o'clock already and time for dinner! Ah, yes; why didn't you come to dinner ? we waited for you till five o'clock."
"Till five« o'clock?" said Alexandr : "I never can, Maria Mihalovna; my office work kept me. I beg you never to wait for me after four o'clock."
" Well, I said the same, but Nadinka kept on' let us wait a little longer, and a little longer !'"
" I ? Oh, mamma, how you talk! Didn't I say,' It's time for dinner, mamma,' and you said 'No, we must wait; Alexandr Fedoritch can't be far off; certainly he will be J
here to dinner.'"
"There, there!" said Maria Mihalovna, shaking her head; " oh, she's a shameless girl! she puts her own words into my mouth !"
Nadinka turned away, walked to the flowers and began to tease the parro,t.
" I said,' Well, where can Alexandr Fedoritch be now ?'" continued Maria Mihalovna " it's half-past four. ' No,' she said, ' we must wait, maman, he will be here.' I look again, a quarter to five. 'You may say what you like, Nadinka,' said I;' Alexandr Fedoritch has certainly gone to some friends, he will not come; I am getting hungry.' ' No,' she said, ' we must wait till five o'clock.' So she plagued me. Eh, isn't it true, miss ?"
"Popka, popka!" was heard from behind the flowers; " where did you dine to-day, at your uncle's ? "
" What; she has hidden herself!" her mother went on; " you see she's ashamed to face the light of day."
" Not at all," answered Nadinka, coming from the flowers, and sitting down at the window.
" And after all she wouldn't sit down to the table !" said
Maria Mihalovna: " she asked for a cup of milk and went into the garden; so she has had no dinner. What ? look me straight in the face, miss !"
Alexandr nearly fainted with happiness at this narrative. He looked at Nadinka, but she had turned her back on him and was tearing a leaf of ivy into little pieces.
" Nadyezhda Alexandrovna !" he said, " had I the happiness of being thought of by you ? "
" Don't come near me !" she cried, in vexation that her manoeuvres had been revealed. " Mamma is joking, and you are ready to believe her."
" But where are the berries that you had got ready for Alexandr Fedoritch ? " asked her mother.
" Berries ? "
" Yes, the berries."
" Why, you ate them at dinner," answered Nadinka.
" I! please to remember, my dear, you hid them aud would not give me any. 'You will see/ she said, ' Alexandr Fedoritch will come, and then I will give you some too.' What do you think of her? "
Alexandr looked shyly and tenderly at Nadinka. She blushed.
" She picked them herself, Alexandr Fedoritch," remarked her mother.
" What is all this you are inventing, maman ? I picked two or three berries, and you ate those yourself, and the rest Vassilisa "
"Don't believe her, don't believe her, Alexandr Fedoritch; Vassilisa has been in the town since the morning. Why make a secret of it ? I'm sure Alexandr Fedoritch will like them all the better for you're having picked them, and not Vassilisa."
Nadinka smiled, then disappeared again behind the flowers and appeared with a plate full of berries. She held out the plate to Alexandr. He kissed her hand and took the berries, feeling as if he had received a marshal's baton.
"You don't deserve them! to keep us waiting so long for you!" said Nadinka: " I stood for two hours at the trellis; only imagine ! some one came along ; I thought it was you and waved my handkerchief, and saw all at once it was a stranger, some officer. And he waved back, impertinent wretch!" .
In the evening guests arrived and went away again. It began to be dusk. The ladies of the house and Adouev were left again alone together. By degrees this trio too broke up. Nadinka went into the garden. Then an unequal duet was kept up between Maria Mihalovna and Adouev; she chatted at great length of what she had done yesterday and to-day and what she was going to do to-morrow. He became a prey to insufferable boredom and restlessness. The evening would soon be here, and he had not yet had an opportunity of saying a word to Nadinka by herself. The cook came to his rescue; the benefactor came in to inquire what to prepare for supper, and Adouev was more breathless with impatience than he had been before in the boat They had scarcely begun to discuss cutlets, a dish of curds, when Alexandr began to beat a skilful retreat How many manoeuvres he employed only to get away from Maria Mihalovna's armchair! To begin with, he walked to the window and looked out into the court Then with slow steps hardly able to restrain himself from running away at his utmost speed, he walked away to the piano, touched the keys here and there, took with feverish tremulousness some music from the desk, looked at it and laid it back : he even had the self-possession to sniff two flowers and wake up the parrot. Then he reached the utmost pitch of impatience ; the door was near, but to go out of it in any way seemed awkward—he had to stand still for two minutes and walk out as though casually. And the cook had already made two steps in retreat, another word more—she would be gone, and then Madame Lubetzky would be certain to turn to him. Alexandr could hold out no longer, and gliding like a snake out of the door, and jumping down the whole flight of steps without touching them, in a few strides he was at the end of the avenue—on the bank, near Nadinka.
" You remembered me at last!" she said then with mild reproach.
"Ah, what torture I have been enduring," replied Alexandr; "and you did not help me !"
Nadinka showed him a book.
"That's what I would have called you out for, if you had not come in another minute," she said.
" Sit down, maman will not come out now; she is afraid
of the damp. I have so much, so much I want to say to you. . . . ah 1"
"And I too . ... ah!"
And they said nothing or almost nothing, something or other they had talked of ten times before. Usually something like dreams, the sky, the stars, sympathy, happiness. Their conversation made more progress in the language of looks, smiles, and ejaculations. The book lay neglected on the grass.