LITMIR.BIZ

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much as to say, “Don’t shout,” and vanished into the darkness. Savka was an excellent sportsman and fisherman when he liked, but his talents in this direction were as completely thrown away as his strength. He was too slothful to do things in the routine way, and vented his passion for sport in useless tricks. For instance, he would catch nightingales only with his hands, would shoot pike with a fowling piece, he would spend whole hours by the river trying to catch little fish with a big hook.

      Left alone with me, Agafya coughed and passed her hand several times over her forehead…. She began to feel a little drunk from the vodka.

      “How are you getting on, Agasha?” I asked her, after a long silence, when it began to be awkward to remain mute any longer.

      “Very well, thank God…. Don’t tell anyone, sir, will you?” she added suddenly in a whisper.

      “That’s all right,” I reassured her. “But how reckless you are, Agasha!… What if Yakov finds out?”

      “He won’t find out.”

      But what if he does?”

      “No… I shall be at home before he is. He is on the line now, and he will come back when the mail train brings him, and from here I can hear when the train’s coming… .”

      Agafya once more passed her hand over her forehead and looked away in the direction in which Savka had vanished. The nightingale was singing. Some night bird flew low down close to the ground and, noticing us, was startled, fluttered its wings and flew across to the other side of the river.

      Soon the nightingale was silent, but Savka did not come back. Agafya got up, took a few steps uneasily, and sat down again.

      “What is he doing?” she could not refrain from saying. “The train’s not coming in tomorrow! I shall have to go away directly.”

      “Savka,” I shouted. “Savka.”

      I was not answered even by an echo. Agafya moved uneasily and sat down again.

      “It’s time I was going,” she said in an agitated voice. “The train will be here directly! I know when the trains come in.”

      The poor woman was not mistaken. Before a quarter of an hour had passed a sound was heard in the distance.

      Agafya kept her eyes fixed on the copse for a long time and moved her hands impatiently.

      “Why, where can he be?” she said, laughing nervously. “Where has the devil carried him? I am going! I really must be going.”

      Meanwhile the noise was growing more and more distinct. By now one could distinguish the rumble of the wheels from the heavy gasps of the engine. Then we heard the whistle, the train crossed the bridge with a hollow rumble… another minute and all was still.

      “I’ll wait one minute more,” said Agafya, sitting down resolutely. “So be it, I’ll wait.

      At last Savka appeared in the darkness. He walked noiselessly on the crumbling earth of the kitchen gardens and hummed something softly to himself.

      “Here’s a bit of luck; what do you say to that now?” he said gaily. “As soon as I got up to the bush and began taking aim with my hand it left off singing! Ah, the bald dog! I waited and waited to see when it would begin again, but I had to give it up.”

      Savka flopped clumsily down to the ground beside Agafya and, to keep his balance, clutched at her waist with both hands.

      “Why do you look cross, as though your aunt were your mother?” he asked.

      With all his soft-heartedness and goodnature, Savka despised women. He behaved carelessly, condescendingly with them, and even stooped to scornful laughter of their feelings for himself. God knows, perhaps this careless, contemptuous manner was one of the causes of his irresistible attraction for the village Dulcineas. He was handsome and well-built; in his eyes there was always a soft friendliness, even when he was looking at the women he so despised, but the fascination was not to be explained by merely external qualities. Apart from his happy exterior and original manner, one must suppose that the touching position of Savka as an acknowledged failure and an unhappy exile from his own hut to the kitchen gardens also had an influence upon the women.

      “Tell the gentleman what you have come here for!” Savka went on, still holding Agafya by the waist. “Come, tell him, you good married woman! Ho-ho! Shall we have another drop of vodka, friend Agasha?”

      I got up and, threading my way between the plots, I walked the length of the kitchen garden. The dark beds looked like flattened-out graves. They smelt of dug earth and the tender dampness of plants beginning to be covered with dew…. A red light was still gleaming on the left. It winked genially and seemed to smile.

      I heard a happy laugh. It was Agafya laughing.

      “And the train?” I thought. “The train has come in long ago.”

      Waiting a little longer, I went back to the shanty. Savka was sitting motionless, his legs crossed like a Turk, and was softly, scarcely audibly humming a song consisting of words of one syllable something like: “Out on you, fie on you… I and you.” Agafya, intoxicated by the vodka, by Savka’s scornful caresses, and by the stifling warmth of the night, was lying on the earth beside him, pressing her face convulsively to his knees. She was so carried away by her feelings that she did not even notice my arrival.

      “Agasha, the train has been in a long time,” I said.

      “It’s time — it’s time you were gone,” Savka, tossing his head, took up my thought. “What are you sprawling here for? You shameless hussy!”

      Agafya started, took her head from his knees, glanced at me, and sank down beside him again.

      “You ought to have gone long ago,” I said.

      Agafya turned round and got up on one knee…. She was unhappy…. For half a minute her whole figure, as far as I could distinguish it through the darkness, expressed conflict and hesitation. There was an instant when, seeming to come to herself, she drew herself up to get upon her feet, but then some invincible and implacable force seemed to push her whole body, and she sank down beside Savka again.

      “Bother him!” she said, with a wild, guttural laugh, and reckless determination, impotence, and pain could be heard in that laugh.

      I strolled quietly away to the copse, and from there down to the river, where our fishing lines were set. The river slept. Some soft, fluffy-petalled flower on a tall stalk touched my cheek tenderly like a child who wants to let one know it’s awake. To pass the time I felt for one of the lines and pulled at it. It yielded easily and hung limply — nothing had been caught…. The further bank and the village could not be seen. A light gleamed in one hut, but soon went out. I felt my way along the bank, found a hollow place which I had noticed in the daylight, and sat down in it as in an armchair. I sat there a long time…. I saw the stars begin to grow misty and lose their brightness; a cool breath passed over the earth like a faint sigh and touched the leaves of the slumbering osiers….

      “A-ga-fya!” a hollow voice called from the village. “Agafya!”

      It was the husband, who had returned home, and in alarm was looking for his wife in the village. At that moment there came the sound of unrestrained laughter: the wife, forgetful of everything, sought in her intoxication to make up by a few hours of happiness for the misery awaiting her next day.

      I dropped asleep.

      When I woke up Savka was sitting beside me and lightly shaking my shoulder. The river, the copse, both banks, green and washed, trees and fields — all were bathed in bright morning light. Through the slim trunks of the trees the rays of the newly risen sun beat upon my back.

      “So that’s how you catch fish?” laughed Savka. “Get up!”

      I got up, gave a luxurious stretch, and began greedily drinking in the damp and fragrant air.

      “Has

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