_ It was already late in the night when Olenin came out of
Beletski's hut following Maryanka and Ustenka. He saw in the dark
street before him the gleam of the girl's white kerchief. The
golden moon was descending towards the steppe. A silvery mist hung
over the village. All was still; there were no lights anywhere and
one heard only the receding footsteps of the young women. Olenin's
heart beat fast. The fresh moist atmosphere cooled his burning
face. He glanced at the sky and turned to look at the hut he had
just come out of: the candle was already out. Then he again peered
through the darkness at the girls' retreating shadows. The white
kerchief disappeared in the mist. He was afraid to remain alone,
he was so happy. He jumped down from the porch and ran after the
girls.
'Bother you, someone may see...' said Ustenka.
'Never mind!'
Olenin ran up to Maryanka and embraced her.
Maryanka did not resist.
'Haven't you kissed enough yet?' said Ustenka. 'Marry and then
kiss, but now you'd better wait.'
'Good-night, Maryanka. To-morrow I will come to see your father
and tell him. Don't you say anything.'
'Why should I!' answered Maryanka.
Both the girls started running. Olenin went on by himself thinking
over all that had happened. He had spent the whole evening alone
with her in a corner by the oven. Ustenka had not left the hut for
a single moment, but had romped about with the other girls and
with Beletski all the time. Olenin had talked in whispers to
Maryanka.
'Will you marry me?' he had asked.
'You'd deceive me and not have me,' she replied cheerfully and
calmly.
'But do you love me? Tell me for God's sake!'
'Why shouldn't I love you? You don't squint,' answered Maryanka,
laughing and with her hard hands squeezing his....
'What whi-ite, whi-i-ite, soft hands you've got--so like clotted
cream,' she said.
'I am in earnest. Tell me, will you marry me?'
'Why not, if father gives me to you?'
'Well then remember, I shall go mad if you deceive me. To-morrow I
will tell your mother and father. I shall come and propose.'
Maryanka suddenly burst out laughing.
'What's the matter?'
'It seems so funny!'
'It's true! I will buy a vineyard and a house and will enroll
myself as a Cossack.'
'Mind you don't go after other women then. I am severe about
that.'
Olenin joyfully repeated all these words to himself. The memory of
them now gave him pain and now such joy that it took away his
breath. The pain was because she had remained as calm as usual
while talking to him. She did not seem at all agitated by these
new conditions. It was as if she did not trust him and did not
think of the future. It seemed to him that she only loved him for
the present moment, and that in her mind there was no future with
him. He was happy because her words sounded to him true, and she
had consented to be his. 'Yes,' thought he to himself, 'we shall
only understand one another when she is quite mine. For such love
there are no words. It needs life--the whole of life. To-morrow
everything will be cleared up. I cannot live like this any longer;
to-morrow I will tell everything to her father, to Beletski, and
to the whole village.'
Lukashka, after two sleepless nights, had drunk so much at the
fete that for the first time in his life his feet would not carry
him, and he slept in Yamka's house. _