United States or Bulgaria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
'Lutchkov is clumsy and coarse, Kister brought out with difficulty; 'but... 'Why but? Aren't you ashamed to say but? He is coarse, and clumsy, and ill-natured, and conceited.... Do you hear? and, not but. 'You are speaking under the influence of anger, Marya Sergievna, Kister observed mournfully. 'Anger? A strange sort of anger! Look at me; are people like this when they 're angry?
'As if she could deceive me!... How could I think of such a thing!... She's still a perfect baby.... She went away.... 'But this is really wicked, thought Masha. Kister had already gone to bed when Lutchkov came into his room.
Lutchkov often repeated that he 'was a soldier. A brief silence followed. Masha was still looking at the meadow. 'How about getting away? thought Avdey. 'What rot it is, though! Come, more pluck!... Marya Sergievna... he began, in a fairly resolute voice. Masha turned to him.
And Lutchkov went away, very well satisfied with himself. Kister could not get to sleep before the morning. With feverish persistence he turned over and over and thought over and over the same single idea an occupation only too well known to unhappy lovers.
'Sir, Fyodor Fedoritch replied, 'I consider your joke stupid and ill-bred do you hear? stupid and ill-bred. 'When shall we fight? Lutchkov responded composedly. 'When you like,... to-morrow. Next morning they fought a duel. Lutchkov wounded Kister slightly, and to the extreme astonishment of the seconds went up to the wounded man, took him by the hand and begged his pardon.
Lutchkov tapped his foot on the floor and shook his head. 'Is there anything so specially attractive about me, hey? I shouldn't have thought there was anything. There isn't anything, is there? And here, I've a clandestine appointment for to-morrow. Kister sat up, leaned on his elbow, and stared in amazement at Lutchkov. 'For the evening, in a wood... Avdey Ivanovitch continued serenely.
You have sent no message to me for three weeks, and now you come to me, apparently with the intention of jeering at me. I am not a boy, sir, and I do not allow any one... 'Mercy on us, Lutchkov interrupted him; 'mercy on us, Fyodor Fedoritch, who would venture to jeer at you?
Kister, for his part, took her awkwardness and her uneasiness for obvious signs of love, and the more afraid he was for her the more impossible he found it to speak of Lutchkov; while Masha obstinately refrained from uttering his name. It was a painful experience for poor Fyodor Fedoritch. He began at last to understand his own feelings. Never had Masha seemed to him more charming.
At last, one day, when Lutchkov, ready dressed, came to fetch him, and the carriage was waiting at the steps, Fyodor Fedoritch, to the astonishment of his friend, announced point-blank that he should stay at home. Lutchkov entreated him, was vexed and angry... Kister pleaded a headache. Lutchkov set off alone. The bully had changed in many ways of late.
Masha danced three times with Kister. The enthusiastic youth inspired her with confidence. She chatted with him gaily enough, but at heart she was not at ease. Lutchkov engrossed her thoughts. A mazurka tune struck up. The officers fell to bounding up and down, tapping with their heels, and tossing the epaulettes on their shoulders; the civilians tapped with their heels too.
Word Of The Day