ted confessing this to his own self. It was
already a clear, bright day, about nine or ten o'clock. Janitors were
watering the streets with rubber hose. Flower girls were sitting on the
squares and near the gates of the boulevards, with roses,
stock-gillyflowers and narcissi. The radiant, gay, rich southern town
was beginning to get animated. Over the pavement jolted an iron cage
filled with dogs of every possible colour, breed, and age. On the coach
box were sitting two dog-catchers, or, as they deferentially style
themselves, "the king's dog-catchers"--i. e., hunters of stray
dogs--returning home with this morning's catch.

"She must be awake by now," Lichonin's secret thought finally took
form; "but if she isn't yet awake, then I'll quietly lie down on the
divan and sleep a little."

In the corridor the dying kerosene lamp emitted a dim light and smoked
as before, and the watery, murky half-light penetrated into the narrow,
long box. The door of the room had remained unlocked, after all.
Lichonin opened it without a sound and entered.

The faint, blue half-light poured in through the interstices between
the blinds and the windows. Lichonin stopped in the middle of the room
and with an intensified avidity heard the quiet, sleeping breathing of
Liubka. His lips became so hot and dry that he had to lick them
incessantly. His knees began to tremble.

"Ask if she needs anything," suddenly darted through his head.

Like a drunkard, breathing hard, with mouth open, staggering on his
shaking legs, he walked up to the bed.

Liubka was sleeping on her back, with one bare arm stretched out along
the body, and the other on her breast. Lichonin bent nearer, to her
very face. She was breathing evenly and deeply. This breathing of her
young, healthy body was, despite sleep, pure and almost aromatic. He
cautiously ran his fingers over her bare arm and stroked her breast a
little below the clavicle. "What am I doing?" his reason suddenly cried
out within him in terror; but some one else answered for Lichonin: "But
I'm not doing anything. I only want to ask if she's sleeping
comfortably, and whether she doesn't want some tea."

But Liubka suddenly awoke, opened her eyes, blinked them for a moment
and opened them again. She gave a long, long stretch, and with a
kindly, not yet fully reasoning smile, encircled Lichonin's neck with
her warm, strong arm.

"Sweetie! Darling!" caressingly uttered the woman in a crooning voice,
som