ill, rocking lightly on the
water like a swan. Zoya affected to refuse at first.... '_Allons_' said
Anna Vassilyevna genially.... Zoya took off her hat and began to sing:
'_O lac, l'annee a peine a fini sa carriere_!'

Her small, but pure voice, seemed to dart over the surface of the lake;
every word echoed far off in the woods; it sounded as though some one
were singing there, too, in a distinct, but mysterious and unearthly
voice. When Zoya finished, a loud bravo was heard from an arbour
near the bank, from which emerged several red-faced Germans who were
picnicking at Tsaritsino. Several of them had their coats off, their
ties, and even their waistcoats; and they shouted '_bis!_' with such
unmannerly insistence that Anna Vassilyevna told the boatmen to row as
quickly as possible to the other end of the lake. But before the boat
reached the bank, Uvar Ivanovitch once more succeeded in surprising his
friends; having noticed that in one part of the wood the echo repeated
every sound with peculiar distinctness, he suddenly began to call like a
quail. At first every one was startled, but they listened directly with
real pleasure, especially as Uvar Ivanovitch imitated the quail's cry
with great correctness. Spurred on by this, he tried mewing like a
cat; but this did not go off so well; and after one more quail-call, he
looked at them all and stopped. Shubin threw himself on him to kiss him;
he pushed him off. At that instant the boat touched the bank, and all
the party got out and went on shore.

Meanwhile the coachman, with the groom and the maid, had brought the
baskets out of the coach, and made dinner ready on the grass under the
old lime-trees. They sat down round the outspread tablecloth, and fell
upon the pies and other dainties. They all had excellent appetites,
while Anna Vassilyevna, with unflagging hospitality, kept urging the
guests to eat more, assuring them that nothing was more wholesome than
eating in the open air. She even encouraged Uvar Ivanovitch with such
assurances. 'Don't trouble about me!' he grunted with his mouth full.
'Such a lovely day is a God-send, indeed!' she repeated constantly.
One would not have known her; she seemed fully twenty years younger.
Bersenyev said as much to her. 'Yes, yes.' she said; 'I could hold my
own with any one in my day.' Shubin attached himself to Zoya, and kept
pouring her out wine; she refused it, he pressed her, and finished by
drinking the glass himself, and ag