she had gone into the garden for a minute - could see the table being laid for supper in the dining-room, and her grandmother bustling about in her gorgeous silk dress; Father Andrey, a chief priest of the cathedral,

g of May, sweet May! One drew deep breaths and longed to fancy that not here but far away under the sky, above the trees, far away in the open country, in the fields an

liked him, the wedding was already fixed for July 7, and yet there was no joy in her heart, she was sleeping badly, her spirits drooped. . . . She could hear from the open windows of the basement where the kitchen was the hurryin

o poverty, used to come to the house to ask for assistance. She had a son Sasha. It used for some reason to be said that he had talent as an artist, and when his mother died Nadya's grandmother had, for the salvation of her soul, sent him to the Komissarovsky school in Moscow; two years later he went into the school of pa

not being fresh. He was very thin, with big eyes, long thin fingers and a swarthy bearded face, and all the same he was handsome. With the Shumins he was like one of the family, an

ce here,

, you ought to stay

to that. I dare say I shall

o reason, and sa

ng from here! My mother has her weaknesses, of course," she a

kitchen and there I found four servants sleeping on the floor, no bedsteads, and rags for bedding, stench, bugs, beetles . . . it is just as it was twenty years ago, no change at a

retch out two long wasted fing

making it out. Nobody ever does anything. Your mother spends the whole day walking about like a duche

at too, and she knew that Sasha could not make any other criticism, and i

f it for ages," she said and got up. "You

, handsome, and well-made, beside him looked very healthy and smartly dressed

she said. "You've just been talking about

r him, your Andrey. I a

he person of most importance in the house. She owned rows of shops in the market, and the old-fashioned house with columns and the garden, yet she prayed every morning that God might save her from ruin and shed tears as she did so. Her daughter-inlaw, Nadya's mother, Nina Ivanovna, a fair-haired woman tightly laced

nly you must eat more. What do you look like!" she sighed. "You are r

ous living," said Father Andrey slowly, with

uching his father on the shoulder. "He is

sha suddenly burst out laughing and

notism?" said Father A

, assuming a very serious, even severe, expression; "but I must own

add that religion distinctly curtails

went on with their conversation. Nina Ivanovna's diamonds glittered on

you," she said, "you must admit there

, I assu

had taken his degree at the university in the Faculty of Arts, but had never held any post, had no definite work, an

y on the table and no one but Sasha was drinking tea. Then when it struck twelve a vi

hile Sasha still sat on drinking tea. He always spent a long time over tea in the Moscow style, drinking as much as seven glasses at a time. For a long time after Nadya had undressed and gone to bed she

ad done every night in May. Her thoughts were the same as they had been the night before, useless, persistent thoughts, always alike, of how Andrey Andreitch had begun courting her and had made her an offer, how she had accepted him and then l

. " the watchman tapped

of lilac in full flower, drowsy and lifeless from the cold; and the thick white mist was float

y is my hea

ce? But for several years past Sasha had been repeating the same thing, like a copybook, and when he

den. Everything was lighted up by the spring sunshine as by a smile. Soon the whole garden, warm and caressed by the sun, returned to

setting the samovar and moving the chairs. The hours passed slowly, Nadya had been

erested in spiritualism and homeopathy, read a great deal, was fond of talking of the doubts to which s

her mother and

en crying about,

his chief falls in love with his daughter. I have not finished it, but there was a passage which made it hard to ke

e days," said Nadya after a pause.

ly, like this, and picture to myself Anna Karenin moving about an

anding. She felt this for the first time in her life, and it positively fright

Wednesday, a fast day, and so vegetable soup an

variably with a moral bearing, and the effect was not at all amusing when before making some witty remark he raised his very long, thin, deathly-looki

to lie down. Nina Ivanovna played on the pi

l afternoon conversation, "if only you

armchair, with her eyes shut, while he pace

undations, everything will be changed as though by magic. And then there will be immense, magnificent houses here, wonderful gardens, marvellous fountains, remarkable people. . . . But that's not what matters most. What matters most is that the crowd, in our sense of the word, in the sense in which it

a, I'm going t

nse! What

he garden and walked

urs is," Sasha went on. "Do understand that if, for instance, you and your mother and your grandmother do nothing, it

at she understood, but tears came into her eyes, her spirits

rule, and was fond of the fiddle, perhaps because one could be silent while playing. At eleven o'clock when he was about t

he muttered. "Oh how happy I am!

hing, it seemed, was quiet and going well. Nadya said good-night, went upstairs to her room, got into bed and fell asleep at once. But just as on the night before, almost before it was light, she woke up. She was not sleepy, there was an uneasy, oppressive feeling in her heart. She sat up with her head on her knees and thought of her fiancé and her marriage. .

s and wonderful fountains one felt there was something absurd. But for some reason in his na?veté, in this very absurdity there was something so beautiful that

not think . . . " she whispe

man somewhere far away. "Tick

i

uddenly felt bored and made u

water supply, no drains! It disgusts me to eat at di

persuade him, speaking for some reason in a w

't wan

stay with us u

I don't want to.

downstairs and upstairs, there was the rattle of a sewing machine in Granny's room, they were working hard at the trousseau. Of fur coats alone, six were provided for Nadya, and the cheapest of them, in

couple some time before. It was a house of two storeys, but so far only the upper floor had been furnished. There was in the hall a shining floor painted and parqueted, there were Vi

itch, and he gave a respectful sigh. "It'

ing else. Andrey Andreitch led Nadya about the rooms, all the while keeping his arm round her waist; and she felt weak and conscience-stricken. She hated all the rooms, the beds, the easy chairs; she was nauseated by the naked lady. It was clear to her now that she had ceased to love Andrey Andreitch or perhaps had never loved him at all; but how to say this and to whom to say it and with what object she did not understand, and could not understand, though she was thinking about it all day and al

d. "I had a tank holding two hundred gallons p

eet and took a cab. Thick clouds of dust were blowing

Andrey Andreitch, screwin

d not

Why is it that the very thought that I may some day fix a cockade on my cap and go into the government service is so hateful to me? Why do I feel so uncomfortable when I see a lawyer or a

thing he drew generalizations, s

e we will work! We will buy ourselves a little piece of land with a garden

in the wind, while she listened to him a

near the house they o

and he waved his hat. "I love my dad really," he said as he p

itors all the evening, that she would have to entertain them, to smile, to listen to

ty as she always seemed before visitors, was sitting bef

ng you in health," he said to Granny, and it was har

his song. It was past midnight; everyone in the house had gone to bed, but no one was asleep, and it seemed all the while to Nadya as though they were p

e bang, Nady

. Nadya remembered that quite a little time ago she had thought her mother an exceptional woman and had listened with pride to

, and she even heard "O-o-o my G-o-od!" Nadya sat on her be

you knew what is happening to me! I beg you,

ot understanding, and she sat d

adya cried and cou

must not and will not be a wedding, understand that! I

it's just because you are in low spirits. It will pass, it often happens. Most li

ther, oh, go awa

re engaged to be married. In nature there is a continual transmutation of substances. Before you know where

nhappy," said Nadya. "You are very unhappy; why do you sa

ices began droning in the stove again, and Nadya felt suddenly frightened. She jumped out of bed and went quickly to her mo

tty and degrading our life is. My eyes have been opened, and I see it all now. And what is your Andrey

vna abrupt

e," she repeated, and twice she beat her little fist upon her bosom. "Let me be fre

o foolish. Nadya went to her room, dressed, and sitting at the window fell to waiting for the morning.

as grey, murky, cheerless, dark enough for candles; everyone complained of the cold, and the rain lashed on the windows. After tea

it?" as

can't understand, I can't conceive! I despise the man I am engaged

t grasping what was meant. "That

an't endure another day here. To-morrow I am

rstood and was delighted as a child. He waved his arms and began

bing his hands. "My good

ortant, something infinitely significant; he had told her nothing yet, but already it seemed to her that something new and great was op

e your things in my portmanteau, and I'll get your ticket, and when the third bell rings you get into the carri

es

then go where fate takes you. When you turn your life upside down everything will be changed. The great t

for God

d all the time till she went away in misery and agonizing thought; but she had hardly gone upstairs and lain down o

od in her own room beside her still warm bed, looked about her, then went slowly in to her mother. Nina Ivanovna was asleep; it was quit

ith the hood pulled down was standin

began putting in the luggage. "What an idea to see him off in s

Then Sasha helped Nadya in and covered her

Granny cried from the steps. "Mind

Good-bye

of Heaven

weather!"

ll no longer frightened her, nor weighed upon her, but was na?ve and trivial and continually retreated further away. And when they got into the railway carriage and the train began to move, all that past which had been so big and serious shrank up into something tiny, and a vast wide future which till then had scarcely been noticed began unfo

cried and pray

said Sasha, smiling.

erything by now were forgiven and forgotten. In May after the examinations she set off for home in good health and high spirits, and stopped on the way at Moscow to see Sasha. He was just the same as the year before, with the same beard and unk

" he said, and laughed g

ng; near a cold samovar stood a broken plate with dark paper on it, and there were masses of dead flies on the table and on the floor. And everything showed that Sasha ordered his personal life in a slovenly way

to see me in Petersburg in the autumn; she said that Granny is not angry, and

ked voice, and Nadya kept looking at him, unable to decide whethe

" she said,

g, I am ill, but

Andreitch and the naked lady with the vase, and all her past which seemed now as far away as her childhood; and she began crying because Sasha no longer seemed to her so novel, so cultured, and so interesting as the year before. "Dear Sa

ha, his works, his smile, his whole figure had for her a suggestion of something o

to drink koumiss. A friend and his wife are going with me. His wife is a wonderful woman; I am alwa

d when the train began moving and he waved his handkerchief at her, smiling, it

ner in a rusty greatcoat. And all the houses looked as though they were covered with dust. Granny, who seemed to have grown quite old, but was as fat and plain as ever, flung her arms round Nadya and cried for a lon

aid, trembling all

ow no position in society, no prestige as before, no right to invite visitors; so it is when in the midst of an easy careless life the police suddenly burst in at n

the table, sat down and sank into thought. And she had a good dinner and drank tea with delicious rich cream; but something was missing, there was a sense of emptiness in t

e sat down as people who feel guilty s

uired after a brief pause, "are

, mo

e the sign of the cross o

always thinking and thinking. . . . And many things have become as clear as daylight to me. It s

er, how is Gra

from you, Granny fell on the floor as she read it; for three days she lay without mo

nd walked ab

he watchman. "Tick-to

said; "in other words, that life in consciousness should be analyzed into its simplest

d when she went away, Nadya did no

drey Andreitch. Nadya walked about the garden and the streets, looked at the grey fences, and it seemed to her that everything in the town had grown old, was out of date and was only waiting either for the end, or for the beginning of something young and fresh. Oh, if only that new, bright life would come more quickly - that life in which one will be able to face one's fate boldly and directly, to know that one is right, to be light-hearted and free! And soo

with a foreboding that was like a conviction. And it vexed her that this foreboding and the thought of Sasha did not distress her so much as before. She had a passionate desire for life, longed to be in Petersburg, and her friendship with Sasha seemed now sweet but something far, far away! She did not sleep all night

e room, listening to Granny's weeping; th

Alexandr Timofeitch, or more simply, Sa

r life had been turned upside down as Sasha wished; that here she was, alien, isolated, useless and that everything here was useless to her; that all the past ha

the vista of a new, wide, spacious life, and that life, still

said good-bye to her family, and full of life and high spiri