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"Well, this is what we have decided to do," continued Schafroff, moving nearer to Lialia, as if the matter were becoming much more complex, "we mean to ask Lida Sanina and Sina Karsavina to sing. Each a solo, first of all, and afterwards a duet. One is a contralto, and the other, a soprano, so that will do nicely.
He had lived too long in large towns built of stone, and though he liked to fancy that he was fond of nature, she really gave him nothing, neither solace, nor peace, nor joy, and only roused in him a vague, dreamy, morbid longing. "Aha! You're up at last! it was about time," said Lialia, as she entered the room.
"The worst of it is that not only do they all know this, and tacitly agree that it must be so, but they enact complete tragi-comedies, allowing themselves to become betrothed, and then lying to God and man. Semenoff once said to me, 'the purer the woman, the filthier the man who possesses her, and he was right." "Is that true?" asked Lialia, in a strange tone. "Yes, most assuredly it is."
While you were away, we started a popular library, and it is going very well indeed." At any other time this would have interested Yourii, but now something made him indifferent. Lialia looked very serious, waiting, as a child might wait, for her brother's praise. At last he managed to murmur. "Oh! really!" "With all that to do, can you expect me to be bored?" said Lialia contentedly.
"Oh! we must have Lida," cried Lialia, not because she particularly liked the girl, but because she knew of Novikoff's passion, and wished to please him. She was so happy herself in her own love, that she wanted all those about her to be happy also. "Then we shall have to invite the officers, too," observed Ivanoff, maliciously. "What does that matter? Let us do so. The more the merrier!"
"So you're a poetess, too?" asked Ivanoff. "How many gifts does the good God bestow upon his creatures!" "Is that a bad thing?" asked Sina in confusion. "No, it's a very good thing," replied Sanine. "If a girl's got youth and good looks, what does she want with poetry, I should like to know?" observed Ivanoff. "Never mind! Recite something, Sinotschka, do!" cried Lialia, amorous and tender.
"Of course, it's rather strange, but quite harmless." At the sound of his voice Lialia felt her heart throb violently, as if it must break. When Riasantzeff saw her, he suddenly stopped talking and came forward to meet her with outstretched arms. She alone knew that this gesture signified his desire to embrace her. Lialia looked up shyly at him, and her lips trembled.
It seemed to him so strange that pretty, fresh-looking little Lialia, almost a child, should already have a lover, and should soon become a bride a wife. It touched him to a vague sense of pity for his sister. Yourii put his arm round Lialia's waist and went with her into the dining-room where in the lamp-light shone the large, highly polished samovar.
The convent, situated on a hill at no great distance from the town, was a favourite place for excursions. It was near the river, and the road leading to it was good. Devoted as she was to every kind of amusement such as bathing, rowing and walks in the woods, Lialia welcomed the idea with enthusiasm. "Yes, of course! Of course! But when is it to be?" "Well, why not to-morrow?" said Novikoff.
"Where is the lecture to be given?" he asked with the same slightly contemptuous smile as he handed back the pamphlet. "At the school," replied Schafroff, mentioning the one at which Sina Karsavina and Dubova were teachers. Yourii remembered that Lialia had once told him about these lectures, but he had paid no attention. "May I come with you?" he asked.
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