the house to the cowshed, putting
things straight. Her mother had gone to the vineyard and her father to
the office. Olenin could not wait till she had quite finished her work,
but went out to meet her. She was in the hut standing with her back
towards him. Olenin thought she felt shy.

'Maryanka,' said he, 'I say, Maryanka! May I come in?'

She suddenly turned. There was a scarcely perceptible trace of tears in
her eyes and her face was beautiful in its sadness. She looked at him
in silent dignity.

Olenin again said:

'Maryanka, I have come--'

'Leave me alone!' she said. Her face did not change but the tears ran
down her cheeks.

'What are you crying for? What is it?'

'What?' she repeated in a rough voice. 'Cossacks have been killed,
that's what for.'

'Lukashka?' said Olenin.

'Go away! What do you want?'

'Maryanka!' said Olenin, approaching her.

'You will never get anything from me!'

'Maryanka, don't speak like that,' Olenin entreated.

'Get away. I'm sick of you!' shouted the girl, stamping her foot, and
moved threateningly towards him. And her face expressed such
abhorrence, such contempt, and such anger that Olenin suddenly
understood that there was no hope for him, and that his first
impression of this woman's inaccessibility had been perfectly correct.

Olenin said nothing more, but ran out of the hut.

Chapter XLII

For two hours after returning home he lay on his bed motionless. Then
he went to his company commander and obtained leave to visit the staff.
Without taking leave of anyone, and sending Vanyusha to settle his
accounts with his landlord, he prepared to leave for the fort where his
regiment was stationed. Daddy Eroshka was the only one to see him off.
They had a drink, and then a second, and then yet another. Again as on
the night of his departure from Moscow, a three-horsed conveyance stood
waiting at the door. But Olenin did not confer with himself as he had
done then, and did not say to himself that all he had thought and done
here was 'not it'. He did not promise himself a new life. He loved
Maryanka more than ever, and knew that he could never be loved by her.

'Well, good-bye, my lad!' said Daddy Eroshka. 'When you go on an
expedition, be wise and listen to my words--the words of an old man.
When you are out on a raid or the like (you know I'm an old wolf and
have seen things), and when they begin firing, don't get into a crowd
where there are many men. When