" There, these young people! they keep doing nothing, keep putting it off from day to day, and then take steps when it's too late ! What did you feel ? was it an ache or a griping or a rheumatic pain ?
" It was an aching and griping and rheumatic pain!" said Alexandr absently.
" That was a chili ; God forbid ! you mustn't let it go on, you'll kill yourself like that .... it might turn to inflammation of the lungs; and you took no medicine! Do you know what you must do? take some opodeldoc and rub your chest vigorously at night, and rub it till it's red, and drink a herb in your tea ; I will give you the receipt."
Nadinka returned pale with fatigue. She fell on to the sofa, almost fainting.
" Look at her! " said Maria Mihalovna, laying her hand on her head : " how tired you- are, you are half-dead. Drink some water and go and undress and unlace your corset. This riding will do you no good !"
Alexandr and the Count remained the whole day. The Count was invariably courteous and affable to Alexandr, invited him to visit him, to look at his garden, suggested that he should share their next expedition on horseback, offered him a horse.
" I can't ride," said Alexandr coldly. " Can't you ? " asked Nadinka, " and it is so delightful! Shall we go again, to-morrow, Count ? "
The Count bowed.
" That's enough, Nadinka," remarked her mother, " you are troublesome to the Count."
There was nothing, however, to show that any special relation had arisen between Nadinka and the Count. He was equally friendly to the mother and the daughter; he did not seek opportunities of speaking to Nadinka alone, did not follow her into the garden, and looked at her exactly as he did at her mother. The freedom of her intercourse with him, and the expeditions on horseback showed on her part the whimsicality and impulsiveness of her character, her naivety perhaps her want of experience, her ignorance of the conventions of the world, on her mother's part weakness want of foresight. The civilities and attentions of the lomihand his daily visits might be ascribed to the proximity oTtrie villas and the warm reception he always received at the Lubetzkys. This thing seemed natural, looked at with a simple eye; but Alexandr looked at it with a magnifying glass and saw much—oh ! much—which one would not see with the simple eye.
" Why," he asked himself, " had Nadinka changed to him ? " She did not wait for him now in the garden, she did not meet him with a smilej but with a look of dismay. For some time she had dressed with special care, there was no carelessness now in her manners. She was more guarded in her behaviour, as though she had become more sensible. Sometimes one caught a glimpse in her eyes and her words of something like a secret. What had become of her sweet caprices, her wildness, her sallies, her frolicking? It had all disappeared. She had become serious, thoughtful, silent. It seemed as though something were tormenting her. She was like all other girls now; she was as hypocritical, told the same lies, asked with the same interest after your health; was so continually polite and friendly for form's sake—to him—to Alexandr ! with whom ? Oh God! his heart sank.
" It is not for nothing, not for nothing," he kept repeating to himself, " there is something beneath it 1 But I will find out, come what may, and then woe to him."
And that day, when the Count had taken his leave, Alexandr tried to snatch a moment to speak with Nadinka alone. What did he not do? He took the book with
H
which she had once called him away from her mother into the garden, showed it to her, and went out to the bank of the river, thinking she would run out at once. He waited and waited—she did not come. He returned to the room. She was reading the book and did not look at him. He sat down near her. She did not raise her eyes, and then asked casually, in a superficial tone, was he busy with his literary work, had anything new come out? Of the past not a word.
He began to talk to her mother. Nadinka went out into the garden. The mother left the room and Adouev too rushed into the garden. Nadinka seeing him, rose from the bench, did not come to meet him, but went quietly by a roundabout way towards the house, as though to avoid him. He quickened his pace, she did the same.
" Nadyezhda Alexandrovna!" he shouted from the distance, " I should like to say two words to you."
" Come indoors ; it's damp here," she answered.
When she had gone in, she sat down again near her mother. Alexandr felt quite ill.
" So you are afraid of the damp air," he said with bitterness.
" Yes, the evenings are so cold and dark now," she replied with a yawn.
" We shall soon return to town," said her mother.
" May I trouble you, Alexandr Fedoritch, to go to our apartments and remind the man-in-charge to renew two locks on the doors, and the shutter in Nadinka's bedroom. He promised to do it, but he'll forget, depend upon it. They are all alike ; care for nothing but making money."
Adouev got up to go.
" Come and see us before long! " said Maria Mihalovna.
Nadinka did not speak.
He had already reached the door, when he turned round to her. She made three steps towards him. His heart throbbed.
" At last! " he thought.
" Will you be with us to-morrow ?" she asked coldly, though her eyes were bent on him with eager curiosity.
" I don't know; why? "
" Oh,. I only asked ; shall you come ? "
" Would you like me to ? "
" Shall you come to-morrow ? " she repeated in the same chilly tone, but with greater impatience.
" No ! " he answered with vexation.
" And the next day ? "
" No; I shall not come for a whole week, perhaps, two— a long while !" And he turned a scrutinising glance upon her, trying to read in her eyes what impression his words produced.
She did not speak, but her eyes dropped at the very instant of his reply, and what was to be seen in them ? Were they clouded with pain or flashing with a gleam of pleasure —nothing could be deciphered from that lovely marble face.
Alexandr clutched his hat in his hand and went away.
"Don't forget to rub your chest with opodeldoc!" screamed Maria Mihalovna after him. And now Alexandr had again a problem to solve—what was the aim of Nadinka's question ? what was to be inferred from it—desire or dread of seeing him ?
"Oh, what torture, what torture !" he said in despair. •Poor Alexandr could not hold out; he went on the third day. Nadinka was at the garden-fence when he arrived. He was beginning to rejoice, but no sooner had he drawn near the bank, when she, as though she had not seen him, turned away and after a few undecided steps on the path just as if she were walking without an object, went towards the house.
He found her with her mother. Two gentlemen from the town were there, their neighbour Maria Ivanovna, and the inevitable Count. Alexandr's sufferings were unendurable. Again the whole day passed in empty, useless conversation. How the guests wearied him ! They talked calmly of all kinds of trifles, argued, joked, laughed.
"They laugh!" said Alexandr: "they can laugh, while— Nadinka—has changed to me ! It's nothing to them! They are wretched, empty creatures; they are pleased with everything !"
Nadinka went into the garden; the Count did not go out with her. For some time he and Nadinka seemed to avoid one another in Alexandra presence. He sometimes came on them alone in the garden or indoors, but then they separated and did not meet any more in his presence. A
new dreadful discovery for Alexandr—a sign that there was an understanding between them.
The guests broke up. The Count too took his leave. Nadinka did not know this, and did not hasten indoors. Adouev left Maria Mihalovna without ceremony and went into the garden. Nadinka was standing with her back to Alexandr, leaning with her arm on the trellis and her head propped on her hand, just as on that never-to-be-forgotten evening. She did not see him and did not hear his approach.