ld already be heard. All the huts were closed;
the porches had been scrubbed clean the day before. Even the old women
were out in the street, which was everywhere sprinkled with pumpkin and
melon seed-shells. The air was warm and still, the sky deep and clear.
Beyond the roofs the dead-white mountain range, which seemed very near,
was turning rosy in the glow of the evening sun. Now and then from the
other side of the river came the distant roar of a cannon, but above
the village, mingling with one another, floated all sorts of merry
holiday sounds.

Olenin had been pacing the yard all that morning hoping to see
Maryanka. But she, having put on holiday clothes, went to Mass at the
chapel and afterwards sat with the other girls on an earth-embankment
cracking seeds; sometimes again, together with her companions, she ran
home, and each time gave the lodger a bright and kindly look. Olenin
felt afraid to address her playfully or in the presence of others. He
wished to finish telling her what he had begun to say the night before,
and to get her to give him a definite answer. He waited for another
moment like that of yesterday evening, but the moment did not come, and
he felt that he could not remain any longer in this uncertainty. She
went out into the street again, and after waiting awhile he too went
out and without knowing where he was going he followed her. He passed
by the corner where she was sitting in her shining blue satin beshmet,
and with an aching heart he heard behind him the girls laughing.

Beletski's hut looked out onto the square. As Olenin was passing it he
heard Beletski's voice calling to him, 'Come in,' and in he went.

After a short talk they both sat down by the window and were soon
joined by Eroshka, who entered dressed in a new beshmet and sat down on
the floor beside them.

'There, that's the aristocratic party,' said Beletski, pointing with
his cigarette to a brightly coloured group at the corner. 'Mine is
there too. Do you see her? in red. That's a new beshmet. Why don't you
start the khorovod?' he shouted, leaning out of the window. 'Wait a
bit, and then when it grows dark let us go too. Then we will invite
them to Ustenka's. We must arrange a ball for them!'

'And I will come to Ustenka's,' said Olenin in a decided tone. 'Will
Maryanka be there?'

'Yes, she'll be there. Do come!' said Beletski, without the least
surprise. 'But isn't it a pretty picture?' he added, pointing to the
motley