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Updated: June 13, 2025
In Lida's heart there arose a vague, fleeting desire to bid tender farewell to all those bygone hours of love which had once been theirs. But this feeling she swiftly repressed, as she said in a loud, harsh voice: "Good-bye! Bon voyage! Don't forget us, Pavel Lvovitsch!" As they were going, Volochine's remark could be distinctly heard. "How charming she is! She intoxicates one, like champagne!"
Sarudine thought of Lida's beauty, and he shrank from discussing it with Volochine. However, after a pause, he observed with much affectation: "Every one to his taste. What I like most in a woman; is the back; that sinuous line, don't you know...." "Yes," drawled Volochine nervously. "Some women, especially very young ones, have got ..."
Sarudine and Tanaroff went to the piano in the drawing-room, while Lida reclined lazily in the rocking-chair on the veranda. Novikoff, mute, walked up and down on the creaking boards of the veranda floor, furtively glancing at Lida's face, at her firm, full bosom, at her little feet shod in yellow shoes, and her dainty ankles.
Novikoff sighed, and sat down on the sofa. He liked to be quiet and think matters over. He only came to see Yourii because, at home, by himself, he was sad and worried. Lida's refusal still distressed him, and he could not be sure if he felt grieved or humiliated. As a straightforward, indolent fellow, he had so far heard nothing of the local gossip concerning Lida and Sarudine.
I like to see Lida's little boy; the nurse knows me by sight, and lets me talk to the child. He can say "Peter" quite plainly. But he does not call Alma "Grandmother." The nurse says she does not like it. He calls her "Nana." Lida does not forget me. Especially at flood-times, apologies, the chiffon gown her mother had worn at her wedding.
You can read this book, of course, but don't put too much faith in it." Tears trickled down Lida's face again. She turned away and suddenly burst into such loud sobs, that Kostya started and jumped up from his seat in great confusion. "I want to go home," she said, "to papa and to nurse." Sasha cried too. Kostya went upstairs to his own room, and spoke on the telephone to Yulia Sergeyevna.
Lida's eyes expressed wild horror. "To kill a being that knows the joy of living and the terror of death is a grave injustice," he continued; "but a germ, an unconscious mass of flesh and blood ..." Lida experienced a strange sensation. At first shame overwhelmed her, such shame as if she were completely stripped, while brutal fingers touched her.
If anyone but Lida's brother had spoken to him in this way it would have pained him deeply, but to hear such words from Sanine's mouth amazed him; in fact at first he scarcely understood them. "Look here," he muttered, "either you are posing, or else " "Or else what?" asked Sanine, smiling. Novikoff looked aside, shrugged his shoulders, and was silent.
The touch of his arm with its muscles like iron sent a fiery thrill through Lida's soft, supple frame. Bashful and trembling, she drew away from him as if at the approach of some unseen beast of prey. They had now reached the river's edge. There was a moist, damp odour from the reeds that swayed pensively in the stream.
He could not tell why, but everything, Lida's laughter, her scornful eyes and trembling hands were all to him as so many secret boxes on the ear. His growing hatred of her, and his jealousy of Volochine as well as the consciousness of all that he had lost, served to exhaust him utterly. "Already?" asked Lida. Volochine smiled sweetly, licking his lips with the tip of his tongue.
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