. Now he had not one word ready; everything was in
a muddle in his head, and all he knew was that today he would
_certainly_ declare himself, and that it was utterly impossible to
wait any longer.

"I will ask her to come to the garden," he thought; "we'll walk
about a little and I'll speak."

There was not a soul in the hall; he went into the dining-room and
then into the drawing-room. . . . There was no one there either.
He could hear Varya arguing with some one upstairs and the clink
of the dressmaker's scissors in the nursery.

There was a little room in the house which had three names: the
little room, the passage room, and the dark room. There was a big
cupboard in it where they kept medicines, gunpowder, and their
hunting gear. Leading from this room to the first floor was a narrow
wooden staircase where cats were always asleep. There were two doors
in it--one leading to the nursery, one to the drawing-room. When
Nikitin went into this room to go upstairs, the door from the nursery
opened and shut with such a bang that it made the stairs and the
cupboard tremble; Masha, in a dark dress, ran in with a piece of
blue material in her hand, and, not noticing Nikitin, darted towards
the stairs.

"Stay . . ." said Nikitin, stopping her. "Good-evening, Godefroi
. . . . Allow me. . . ."

He gasped, he did not know what to say; with one hand he held her
hand and with the other the blue material. And she was half frightened,
half surprised, and looked at him with big eyes.

"Allow me . . ." Nikitin went on, afraid she would go away. "There's
something I must say to you. . . . Only . . . it's inconvenient
here. I cannot, I am incapable. . . . Understand, Godefroi, I can't
--that's all . . . ."

The blue material slipped on to the floor, and Nikitin took Masha
by the other hand. She turned pale, moved her lips, then stepped
back from Nikitin and found herself in the corner between the wall
and the cupboard.

"On my honour, I assure you . . ." he said softly. "Masha, on my
honour. . . ."

She threw back her head and he kissed her lips, and that the kiss
might last longer he put his fingers to her cheeks; and it somehow
happened that he found himself in the corner between the cupboard
and the wall, and she put her arms round his neck and pressed her
head against his chin.

Then they both ran into the garden. The Shelestoys had a garden of
nine acres. There were about twenty old maples and lime-trees in
it; there