The new year 1655 came. January was frosty, but dry; a stern winter
covered sacred Jmud with a white coat three feet thick, the forests
were bending and breaking under a wealth of snow bunches, snow dazzled
the eyes during days of sunshine, and in the night by the moon there
glittered as it were sparks vanishing on a surface stiffened by frost;
wild beasts approached the dwellings of men, and the poor gray birds
hammered with their beaks the windows covered with hoar frost and
snow-flowers.
On a certain evening Panna Aleksandra was sitting in the servants' hall
with her work-maidens. It was an old custom of the Billeviches, when
there were no guests, to spend evenings with the servants singing hymns
and edifying simple minds by their example. In this wise did Panna
Aleksandra; and the more easily since among her house-maidens were some
really noble, very poor orphans. These performed every kind of work,
even the rudest, and were servants for ladies; in return they were
trained in good manners, and received better treatment than simple
girls. But among them were peasants too, differing mainly in speech,[6]
for many did not know Polish.
Panna Aleksandra, with her relative Panna Kulvyets, sat in the centre,
and the girls around on benches; all were spinning. In a great chimney
with sloping sides pine-logs were burning, now dying down and now
flaming freshly with a great bright blaze or with sparks, as the youth
standing near the chimney threw on small pieces of birch or pitch-pine.
When the flame shot upward brightly, the dark wooden walls of the
great hall were to be seen, with an unusually low ceiling resting on
cross-beams. From the beams hung, on threads, many-colored stars, made
of wafers, trembling in the warm air; behind, from both sides of the
beams, were bunches of combed flax, hanging like captured Turkish
horse-tail standards. Almost the whole ceiling was covered with them.
On the dark walls glittered, like stars, tin plates, large and small,
standing straight or leaning on long oaken shelves.
In the distance, near the door, a shaggy-haired man of Jmud was making
a great noise with a hand-mill, and muttering a song with nasal
monotone. Panna Aleksandra slipped her beads through her fingers in
silence; the spinners spun on, saying nothing the one to the other.
The light of the flame fell on their youthful, ruddy faces. They, with
both hands raised,--with the left feeding the soft flax, with the right
turning the wheel,--spun eagerly, as if vying with one another, urged
on by the stern glances of Panna Kulvyets. Sometimes, too, they looked
at one another with quick eye, and sometimes at Panna Aleksandra, as if
in expectation that she would tell the man to stop grinding, and would
begin the hymn; but they did not cease working. They spun and spun on;
the threads were winding, the wheel was buzzing, the distaff played in
the hand of Panna Kulvyets, the shaggy-haired man of Jmud rattled on
with his mill.
But at times he stopped his work. Evidently something was wrong with
the mill, for at those times was heard his angry voice: "It's down!"
Panna Aleksandra raised her head, as if roused by the silence which
followed the exclamations of the man; then the blaze lighted up her
face and her serious blue eyes looking from beneath black brows. She
was a comely lady, with flaxen hair, pale complexion, and delicate
features. She had the beauty of a white flower. The mourning robes
added to her dignity. Sitting before the chimney, she seemed buried in
thought, as in a dream; doubtless she was meditating over her own lot,
for her fates were in the balance. The will predestined her to be the
wife of a man whom she had not seen for ten years; and as she was now
almost twenty, there remained to her but unclear childhood
reminiscences of a certain boisterous boy, who at the time when he with
his father had come to Vodokty, was more occupied with racing through
the swamps with a gun than in looking at her. "Where is he, and what
manner of man is he now?" These were the questions which thrust
themselves on the mind of the dignified lady. She knew him also, it is
true, from the narratives of the late under-chamberlain, who four
years before had undertaken the long journey to Orsha. According to
those narratives, he was a cavalier "of great courage, though very
quick-tempered." By the contract of marriage for their descendants
concluded between old Billevich and Kmita the father, Kmita the son was
to go at once to Vodokty and be accepted by the lady; but a great war
broke out just then, and the cavalier, instead of going to the lady,
went to the fields of Berestechko. Wounded at Berestechko, he recovered
at home; then he nursed his sick father, who was near death; after that
another war broke out, and thus four years passed. Since the death of
the old colonel considerable time had elapsed, but no tidings of Kmita.
Panna Aleksandra therefore had something to meditate upon, and perhaps
she was pining for the unknown. In her pure heart, especially because
it knew not love as yet, she bore a great readiness for that feeling. A
spark only was needed to kindle on that hearth a flame quiet but
bright, and as steady as the undying sacred fire of Lithuania.
Disquiet then seized her,--at times pleasant, at times bitter; and her
soul was ever putting questions to which there was no answer, or rather
the answer must come from distant fields. The first question was
whether he would marry her with good-will and respond with readiness to
her readiness. In those days contracts by parents for the marriage of
their children were usual; and if the parents died the children, held
by the blessing, observed in most cases the contract. In the engagement
itself the young lady saw nothing uncommon; but good pleasure does not
always go hand in hand with duty; hence the anxiety that weighed down
the blond head of the maiden. "Will he love me?" And then a flock of
thoughts surrounded her, as a flock of birds surround a tree standing
alone in spacious fields: "Who art thou? What manner of person? Art
walking alive in the world, or perhaps thou hast fallen? Art thou
distant or near?" The open heart of the lady, like a door open to a
precious guest, called involuntarily to distant regions, to forests and
snow-fields covered with night: "Come hither, young hero; for there is
naught in the world more bitter than waiting."
That moment, as if in answer to the call, from outside, from those
snowy distances covered with night, came the sound of a bell.
The lady trembled, but regaining her presence of mind, remembered that
almost every evening some one came to Vodokty to get medicine for the
young colonel.
Panna Kulvyets confirmed that idea by saying, "Some one from the
Gashtovts for herbs."
The irregular sound of the bell shaken by the shaft rang more
distinctly each moment; at last it stopped on a sudden. Evidently the
sleigh had halted before the door.
"See who has come," said Panna Kulvyets to the man of Jmud who was
turning the mill.
The man went out of the servants' hall, but soon returned, and taking
again the handle of the mill, said phlegmatically, "Panas Kmitas."[7]
"The word is made flesh!" cried Panna Kulvyets.
The spinners sprang to their feet; the flax and the distaffs fell to
the floor.
Panna Aleksandra rose also. Her heart beat like a hammer; a flush came
forth on her face, and then pallor; but she turned from the chimney,
lest her emotion might be seen.
Then in the door appeared a certain lofty figure in a fur mantle and
fur-bound cap. A young man advanced to the middle of the room, and
seeing that he was in the servants' hall, inquired in a resonant voice,
without removing his cap, "Hei! but where is your mistress?"
"I am the mistress," said Panna Billevich, in tones sufficiently clear.
Hearing this, the newly arrived removed his cap, cast it on the floor,
and inclining said, "I am Andrei Kmita."
The eyes of Panna Aleksandra rested with lightning-like swiftness on
the face of Kmita, and then dropped again to the floor; still during
that time the lady was able to see the tuft shaven high, yellow as
wheat, an embrowned complexion, blue eyes, looking quickly to the
front, dark mustache, a face youthful, eagle-like, but joyous and
gallant.
He rested his left hand on his hip, raised his right to his mustache,
and said: "I have not been in Lyubich yet, for I hastened here like a
bird to bow down at the feet of the lady, the chief hunter's daughter.
The wind--God grant it was a happy one!--brought me straight from the
camp."
"Did you know of the death of my grandfather?" asked the lady.
"I did not; but I bewailed with hot tears my benefactor when I learned
of his death from those rustics who came from this region to me. He was
a sincere friend, almost a brother, of my late father. Of course it is
well known to you that four years ago he came to us at Orsha. Then he
promised me your ladyship, and showed a portrait about which I sighed
in the night-time. I wished to come sooner, but war is not a mother:
she makes matches for men with death only."
This bold speech confused the lady somewhat. Wishing to change the
subject, she said, "Then you have not seen Lyubich yet?"
"There will be time for that. My first service is here; and here the
dearest inheritance, which I wish to receive first. But you turned from
the hearth, so that to this moment I have not been able to look you in
the eye--that's the way! Turn, and I will stand next the hearth; that's
the way!"
Thus speaking, the daring soldier seized by the hand Olenka,[8] who did
not expect such an act, and brought her face toward the fire, turning
her like a top. She was still more confused, and covering her eyes with
her long lashes, stood abashed by the light and her own beauty. Kmita
released her at last, and struck himself on the doublet.
"As God is dear to me, a beauty! I'll have a hundred Masses said for my
benefactor because he left you to me. When the betrothal?"
"Not yet awhile; I am not yours yet," said Olenka.
"But you will be, even if I have to burn this house! As God lives, I
thought the portrait flattered. I see that the painter aimed high, but
missed. A thousand lashes to such an artist, and stoves to paint, not
beauties, with which eyes are feasted! Oh, 'tis a delight to be the
heir to such an inheritance, may the bullets strike me!"
"My late grandfather told me that you were very hot-headed."
"All are that way with us in Smolensk; not like your Jmud people. One,
two! and it must be as we want; if not, then death."
Olenka laughed, and said with a voice now more confident, raising her
eyes to the cavalier, "Then it must be that Tartars dwell among you?"
"All one! but you are mine by the will of parents and by your heart."
"By my heart? That I know not yet."
"Should you not be, I would thrust myself with a knife!"
"You say that laughing. But we are still in the servants' hall; I beg
you to the reception-room. After a long road doubtless supper will be
acceptable. I beg you to follow me."
Here Olenka turned to Panna Kulvyets. "Auntie, dear, come with us."
The young banneret glanced quickly. "Aunt?" he inquired,--"whose aunt?"
"Mine,--Panna Kulvyets."
"Then she is mine!" answered he, going to kiss her hand. "I have in my
company an officer named Kulvyets-Hippocentaurus. Is he not a
relative?"
"He is of the same family," replied the old maid, with a courtesy.
"A good fellow, but a whirlwind like myself," added Kmita.
Meanwhile a boy appeared with a light. They went to the antechamber,
where Pan Andrei removed his shuba; then they passed to the
reception-room.
Immediately after their departure the spinners gathered in a close
circle, and one interrupted another, talking and making remarks. The
stately young man pleased them greatly; therefore they did not spare
words on him, vying with one another in praises.
"Light shines from him," said one; "when he came I thought he was a
king's son."
"And he has lynx eyes, so that he cuts with them," said another; "do
not cross such a man."
"That is worst of all," said a third.
"He met the lady as a betrothed. It is easily seen that she pleased him
greatly, for whom has she not pleased?"
"But he is not worse than she, never fear! Could you get his equal, you
would go even to Orsha, though likely that is at the end of the world."
"Ah, lucky lady!"
"It is always best for the rich in the world. Ei, ei, that's gold, not
a knight."
"The Patsuneli girls say that that cavalry captain who is stopping with
old Pakosh is a handsome cavalier."
"I have not seen him; but how compare him with Pan Kmita! Such another
as Pan Kmita surely there is not in the world!"
"It's down!" cried the man of Jmud on a sudden, when something broke
again in the mill.
"Go out, shaggy head, with thy freaks! Give us peace, for we cannot
hear.--True, true; hard to find better than Pan Kmita in the whole
world; surely in Kyedani there is none such."
"Dream of one like him!"
"May his like come in a dream!"
In such fashion did the girls talk among themselves in the servants'
hall. Meanwhile in the dining-room the table was laid in all haste,
while in the drawing-room Panna Aleksandra conversed face to face with
Kmita, for Aunt Kulvyets had gone to bustle about the supper.
Pan Andrei did not remove his gaze from Olenka, and his eyes shot
sparks more and more every moment; at last he said,--
"There are men to whom land is dearer than all things else; there are
others who chase after plunder in war, others love horses; but I would
not give you for any treasure. As God lives, the more I look the more I
wish to marry; so that even if it were to-morrow-- Oh, that brow,--just
as if painted with burned cork!"
"I hear that some use such strange things, but I am not of that kind."
"And eyes as from heaven! From confusion, words fail me."
"You are not greatly confused, if in my presence you can be so urgent
that I am wonder-stricken."
"That is our way in Smolensk,--to go boldly at women as we do into
battle. You must, my queen, grow accustomed to this, for thus will it
ever be."
"You must put it aside, for thus it cannot be."
"Perhaps I may yield, may I be slain! Believe, believe me not, but with
gladness would I bend the skies for you. For you, my queen, I am ready
to learn other manners; for I know myself that I am a simple soldier, I
have lived more in camps than in chambers of castles."
"Oh, that harms nothing, for my grandfather was a soldier; but I give
thanks for the good-will," said Olenka; and her eyes looked with such
sweetness on Pan Andrei that his heart melted like wax in a moment, and
he answered,--
"You will lead me on a thread."
"Ah, you are not like those who are led on threads; to do that is most
difficult with men who are unsteady."
Kmita showed in a smile teeth as white as a wolf's teeth, "How is
that?" asked he. "Are the rods few that the fathers broke on me in the
monastery to bring me to steadiness and make me remember various fair
maxims for guidance in life--"
"And which one do you remember best?"
"'When in love, fall at the feet,'--in this fashion."
When he had spoken, Kmita was already on his knees. The lady screamed,
putting her feet under the table.
"For God's sake! they did not teach that in the monastery. Leave off,
or I shall be angry--my aunt will come this minute--"
Still on his knees, he raised his head and looked into her eyes. "Let a
whole squadron of aunts come; I shall not forbid their pleasure."
"But stand up!"
"I am standing."
"Sit down!"
"I am sitting."
"You are a traitor, a Judas!"
"Not true, for when I kiss 'tis with sincerity,--will you be
convinced?"
"You are a serpent!"
Panna Aleksandra laughed, however, and a halo of youth and gladness
came from her. His nostrils quivered like the nostrils of a young steed
of noble blood.
"Ai! ai!" said he. "What eyes, what a face! Save me, all ye saints, for
I cannot keep away!"
"There is no reason to summon the saints. You were absent four years
without once looking in here; sit still now!"
"But I knew only the counterfeit. I will have that painter put in tar
and then in feathers, and scourge him through the square of Upita. I
will tell all in sincerity,--forgive, if it please you; if not, take my
head. I thought to myself when looking at that portrait: 'A pretty
little rogue, pretty; but there is no lack of pretty ones in the world.
I have time.' My late father urged me hither, but I had always one
answer: 'I have time! The little wife will not vanish; maidens go not
to war and do not perish.' I was not opposed at all to the will of my
father, God is my witness; but I wanted first to know war and feel it
on my own body. This moment I see my folly. I might have married and
gone to war afterward; and here every delight was waiting for me.
Praise be to God that they did not hack me to death! Permit me to kiss
your hand."
"Better, I'll not permit."
"Then I will not ask. In Orsha we say, 'Ask; but if they don't give,
take it thyself.'"
Here Pan Andrei clung to the hand of the lady and began to kiss it; and
the lady did not resist too greatly, lest she might exhibit ill-will.
Just then Panna Kulvyets came in. When she saw what was going on, she
raised her eyes. That intimacy did not please her, but she dared not
scold. She gave invitation to supper.
Both went to the supper-room, holding each the other's hand as if they
were related. In the room stood a table covered, and on it an abundance
of all kinds of food, especially choice smoked meats and a mouldy thick
bottle of strength-giving wine. It was pleasant for the young people
with each other, gladsome, vivacious. The lady had supped already;
therefore Kmita sat alone, and began to eat with animation equal to
that with which he had just been conversing.
Olenka looked at him with sidelong glance, glad that he was eating and
drinking. When he had appeased his first hunger, she began again to
inquire,--
"Then you are not direct from Orsha?"
"Scarcely do I know whence I come,--here to-day, tomorrow in another
place. I prowled near the enemy as a wolf around sheep, and what was
possible to seize I seized."
"And how had you daring to meet such a power, before which the grand
hetman himself had to yield?"
"How had I daring? I am ready for all things, such is the nature within
me."
"That is what my grandfather said. Great luck that you were not
killed!"
"Ai, they covered me with cap and with hand as a bird is covered on the
nest; but I, whom they covered, sprang out and bit them in another
place. I made it so bitter for them that there is a price on my
head-- A splendid half-goose!"
"In the name of the Father and the Son!" cried Olenka, with unfeigned
wonder, gazing with homage on that young man who in the same moment
mentions the price on his head and the half-goose. "Had you many troops
for defence?"
"I had, of course, my poor dragoons,--very excellent men, but in a
month they were all kicked to bits. Then I went with volunteers whom I
gathered wherever I could without question. Good fellows for battle,
but knave upon knave! Those who have not perished already will sooner
or later be meat for the crows."
Pan Andrei laughed, emptied his goblet of wine, and added: "Such
plunderers you have not seen yet. May the hangman light them!
Officers,--all nobles from our parts, men of family, worthy people, but
against almost every one of them is a sentence of outlawry. They are
now in Lyubich, for where else could I send them?"
"So you have come to us with the whole squadron?"
"I have. The enemy took refuge in towns, for the winter is bitter.
My men too are as ragged as brooms after long sweeping. The prince
voevoda assigned me winter quarters in Ponyevyej. God knows the
breathing-spell is well earned!"
"Eat, I beg you."
"I would eat poison for your sake! I left a part of my ragged fellows
in Ponyevyej, a part in Upita, and the most worthy officers I invited
to Lyubich as guests. These men will come to beat to you with the
forehead."
"But where did the Lauda men find you?"
"They found me on the way to winter quarters in Ponyevyej. Had I not
met them I should have come here."
"But drink."
"I would drink even poison for you!"
"Were the Lauda men the first to tell you of my grandfather's death and
the will?"
"They told of the death.--Lord, give light to the soul of my
benefactor!--Did you send those men to me?"
"Think not such a thing! I had nothing but mourning and prayer on my
mind."
"They too said the same. They are an arrogant set of homespuns. I
wanted to give them a reward for their toil; instead of accepting it,
they rose against me and said that the nobility of Orsha might take
drink-money, but the Lauda men never. They spoke very foully to me;
while listening, I thought to myself: 'If you don't want money, then
I'll command to give you a hundred lashes.'"
Panna Aleksandra seized her head. "Jesus Mary! and did you do that?"
Kmita looked at her in astonishment. "Have no fears! I did not, though
my soul revolts within me at such trashy nobility, who pretend to be
the equal of us. But I thought to myself, 'They will cry me down
without cause in those parts, call me tyrant, and calumniate me before
you!'"
"Great is your luck," said Olenka, drawing a deep breath of relief,
"for I should not have been able to look you in the eyes."
"But how so?"
"That is a petty nobility, but ancient and renowned. My dear
grandfather always loved them, and went with them to war. He served all
his life with them. In time of peace he received them in his house.
That is an old friendship of our family which you must respect. You
have moreover a heart, and will not break that sacred harmony in which
thus far we have lived."
"I knew nothing of them at that moment,--may I be slain if I did!--but
yet I confess that this barefooted nobledom somehow cannot find place
in my head. With us a peasant is a peasant, and nobles are all men of
good family, who do not sit two on one mare. God knows that such scurvy
fellows have nothing to do with the Kmitas nor with the Billeviches,
just as a mudfish has nothing to do with a pike, though this is a fish
and that also."
"My grandfather used to say that blood and honor, not wealth, make a
man; and these are honorable people, or grandfather would not have made
them my guardians."
Pan Andrei was astonished and opened wide his eyes, "Did your
grandfather make all the petty nobility of Lauda guardians over you?"
"He did. Do not frown, for the will of the dead is sacred. It is a
wonder to me that the messengers did not mention this."
"I should have-- But that cannot be. There is a number of villages.
Will they all discuss about you? Will they discuss me,--whether I am to
their thinking or not? But jest not, for the blood is storming up in
me."
"Pan Andrei, I am not jesting; I speak the sacred and sincere truth.
They will not debate about you; but if you will not repulse them nor
show haughtiness, you will capture not only them, but my heart. I,
together with them, will thank you all my life,--all my life, Pan
Andrei."
Her voice trembled as if in a beseeching request; but he did not let
the frown go from his brow, and was gloomy. He did not burst into
anger, it is true, though at moments there flew over his face as it
were lightnings; but he answered with haughtiness and pride,--
"I did not look for this! I respect the will of the dead, and I think
the under-chamberlain might have made those petty nobles your guardians
till the time of my coming; but when once I have put foot here, no
other, save me, will be guardian. Not only those gray coats, but the
Radzivills of Birji themselves have nothing in this place to do with
guardianship."
Panna Aleksandra grew serious, and answered after a short silence: "You
do ill to be carried away by pride. The conditions laid down by my late
grandfather must be either all accepted or all rejected. I see no other
way. The men of Lauda will give neither trouble nor annoyance, for they
are worthy people and peaceful. Do not suppose that they will be
disagreeable. Should any trouble arise, they might say a word; but it
is my opinion that all will pass in harmony and peace, and then the
guardianship will be as if it had not been."
Kmita held silence a moment, then waved his hand and said: "It is true
that the marriage will end everything. There is nothing to quarrel
about. Let them only sit quietly and not force themselves on me; for
God knows I will not let my mustache be blown upon. But no more of
them. Permit an early wedding; that will be best."
"It is not becoming to mention that now, in time of mourning."
"Ai, but shall I be forced to wait long?"
"Grandfather himself stated that no longer than half a year."
"I shall be as dried up as a chip before that time. But let us not be
angry. You have begun to look on me as sternly as on an offender. God
be good to you, my golden queen! In what am I to blame if the nature
within me is such that when anger against a man takes me I would tear
him to pieces, and when it passes I would sew him together again."
"'Tis a terror to live with such a man," answered Olenka, more
joyously.
"Well, to your health! This is good wine; for me the sabre and wine are
the basis. What kind of terror to live with me? You will hold me
ensnared with your eyes, and make a slave of me,--a man who hitherto
would endure no superior. At the present time I chose to go with my own
little company in independence rather than bow to the hetman. My golden
queen, if anything in me does not please you, overlook it; for I
learned manners near cannon and not among ladies, in the tumult of
soldiers and not at the lute. Our region is restless, the sabre is
never let go from the hand. There, though some outlawry rests on a man,
though he be pursued by sentences, 'tis nothing! People respect him if
he has the daring of a warrior. For example, my companions who in some
other place would have long been in prison are in their fashion worthy
persons. Even women among us go in boots, and with sabres lead
parties,--like Pani Kokosinski, the aunt of my lieutenant. She died a
hero’s death; and her nephew in my command has avenged her, though in
life he did not love her. Where should we, even of the greatest
families, learn politeness? But we know when there is war how to fight,
when there is a diet how to talk; and if the tongue is not enough, then
the sabre. That's the position; as a man of such action did the late
chamberlain know me, and as such did he choose me for you."
"I have always followed the will of my grandfather willingly," answered
the lady, dropping her eyes.
"Let me kiss your hand once again, my dear girl! God knows you have
come close to my heart. Feeling has so taken hold of me that I know not
how I can find that Lyubich which I have not yet seen."
"I will give you a guide."
"Oh, I shall find the way. I am used to much pounding around by night.
I have an attendant from Ponyevyej who must know the road. And there
Kokosinski and his comrades are waiting for me. With us the Kokosinskis
are a great family, who use the seal of Pypka. This one was outlawed
without reason because he burned the house of Pan Orpishevski, carried
off a maiden, and cut down some servants. A good comrade!-- Give me
your hand once more. I see it is time to go."
Midnight began to beat slowly on the great Dantzig clock standing in
the hall.
"For God's sake! 'tis time, 'tis time!" cried Kmita. "I may not stay
longer. Do you love me, even as much as would go around your finger?"
"I will answer another time. You will visit me, of course?"
"Every day, even if the ground should open under me! May I be slain!"
Kmita rose, and both went to the antechamber. The sleigh was already
waiting before the porch; so he enrobed himself in the shuba, and began
to take farewell, begging her to return to the chamber, for the cold
was flying in from the porch.
"Good-night, my dear queen," said he, "sleep sweetly, for surely I
shall not close an eye thinking of your beauty."
"May you see nothing bad! But better, I'll give you a man with a light,
for there is no lack of wolves near Volmontovichi."
"And am I a lamb to fear wolves? A wolf is a friend to a soldier, for
often has he profit from his hand. We have also firearms in the sleigh.
Good-night, dearest, good-night."
"With God."
Olenka withdrew, and Pan Kmita went to the porch. But on the way,
through the slightly open door of the servants' hall he saw a number of
pairs of eyes of maidens who waiting to see him once more had not yet
lain down to sleep. To them Pan Andrei sent, soldier-fashion, kisses
from his mouth with his hand, and went out. After a while the bell
began to jingle, at first loudly, then with a continually decreasing
sound, ever fainter and fainter, till at last it was silent.
It grew still in Vodokty, till the stillness amazed Panna Aleksandra.
The words of Pan Andrei were sounding in her ears; she heard his
laughter yet, heartfelt, joyous; in her eyes stood the rich form of the
young man; and now after that storm of words, mirth, and joyousness,
such marvellous silence succeeded. The lady bent her ear,--could she
not hear even one sound more from the sleigh? But no! it was sounding
somewhere off in the forest, near Volmontovichi. Therefore a mighty
sadness seized the maiden, and never had she felt so much alone in the
world.
Taking the light, slowly she went to her chamber, and knelt down to say
the Lord's Prayer. She began five times before she could finish with
proper attention; and when she had finished, her thoughts, as if on
wings, chased after that sleigh and that figure sitting within. On one
side were pine-woods, pine-woods on the other, in the middle a broad
road, and he driving on,--Pan Andrei! Here it seemed to Olenka that she
saw as before her the blond foretop, the blue eyes, the laughing mouth
in which are gleaming teeth as white as the teeth of a young dog. For
this dignified lady could hardly deny before her own face that this
wild cavalier had greatly pleased her. He alarmed her a little, he
frightened her a little, but he attracted her also with that daring,
that joyous freedom and sincerity, till she was ashamed that he pleased
her, especially with his haughtiness when at mention of the guardians
he reared his head like a Turkish war-horse and said, "Even the
Radzivills of Birji themselves have nothing to do here with
guardianship."
"That is no dangler around women; that is a true man," said the lady to
herself. "He is a soldier of the kind that my grandfather loved most of
all,--and he deserved it!"
So meditated the lady; and a happiness undimmed by anything embraced
her. It was an unquiet; but that unquiet was something dear. Then she
began to undress; the door creaked, and in came Panna Kulvyets, with a
candle in her hand.
"You sat terribly long," said she. "I did not wish to interfere with
young people, so that you might talk your fill the first time. He seems
a courteous cavalier. But how did he please you?"
Panna Aleksandra gave no answer at first, but barefooted ran up to her
aunt, threw herself on her neck, and placing her bright head on her
bosom, said with a fondling voice, "Auntie, oh, Auntie!"
"Oho!" muttered the old maid, raising her eyes and the candle toward
heaven.