did not wish to look up at the sky and the real
stars were unnoticed. The sky was black and dreary, while the earth was
gay.

"I am a fool, a fool! what have I been waiting for?" thought Nicholas,
and running out from the porch he went round the corner of the house and
along the path that led to the back porch. He knew Sonya would pass
that way. Halfway lay some snow-covered piles of firewood and across and
along them a network of shadows from the bare old lime trees fell on the
snow and on the path. This path led to the barn. The log walls of the
barn and its snow-covered roof, that looked as if hewn out of some
precious stone, sparkled in the moonlight. A tree in the garden snapped
with the frost, and then all was again perfectly silent. His bosom
seemed to inhale not air but the strength of eternal youth and gladness.

From the back porch came the sound of feet descending the steps, the
bottom step upon which snow had fallen gave a ringing creak and he heard
the voice of an old maidservant saying, "Straight, straight, along the
path, Miss. Only, don't look back."

"I am not afraid," answered Sonya's voice, and along the path toward
Nicholas came the crunching, whistling sound of Sonya's feet in her thin
shoes.

Sonya came along, wrapped in her cloak. She was only a couple of paces
away when she saw him, and to her too he was not the Nicholas she
had known and always slightly feared. He was in a woman's dress, with
tousled hair and a happy smile new to Sonya. She ran rapidly toward him.

"Quite different and yet the same," thought Nicholas, looking at her
face all lit up by the moonlight. He slipped his arms under the cloak
that covered her head, embraced her, pressed her to him, and kissed her
on the lips that wore a mustache and had a smell of burnt cork. Sonya
kissed him full on the lips, and disengaging her little hands pressed
them to his cheeks.

"Sonya!... Nicholas!"... was all they said. They ran to the barn and
then back again, re-entering, he by the front and she by the back porch.

CHAPTER XII

When they all drove back from Pelageya Danilovna's, Natasha, who always
saw and noticed everything, arranged that she and Madame Schoss should
go back in the sleigh with Dimmler, and Sonya with Nicholas and the
maids.

On the way back Nicholas drove at a steady pace instead of racing and
kept peering by that fantastic all-transforming light into Sonya's face
and searching beneath the eyebrows and