Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 15, 2025
Tatiana Markovna could not do enough in honour of her guest and future connexion. She had a great bed put up in the guest-chamber, that nearly reached to the ceiling and resembled a catafalque. Marfinka and Vikentev gave full rein to their gay humour, as they played and sang. Only Raisky's windows were dark. He had gone out immediately after dinner and had not returned to tea.
She pulled herself up, but was pressed down on the bench with the weight of Raisky's hands. She shook her head wildly in powerless rage. "What reward do you hope from me for this virtuous deed?" she hissed. He said nothing, but kept a watchful eye on her movements. After a time she besought him gently: "Let me go, Cousin," but he refused.
When he left her he was weighed down with a greater weight of fear than that which he had brought to the interview. Vera rose as soon as he left her, closed the door, and lay down again. She had found consolation and help in Raisky's friendship, his sympathy and devotion, as a drowning man rises to the surface for a moment, but as soon as he was gone she fell back deeper into the depths.
Raisky's face changed. "Well?" he urged. "Tatiana Markovna restrained his hand. 'You are' she said, 'a nobleman, not a bandit, your weapon is a sword. She succeeded in separating them, and a duel was not possible, for it would have compromised her. The opponents gave their word; the Count to keep silence over what had happened, and Tiet Nikonich not to marry Tatiana Markovna.
I am old and can no longer do all the work. Do you wish me to put the estate into strange hands?" "Farm it yourself, Granny, so long as you take any pleasure in it." "And if I die?" "Then leave everything as it is." Tatiana Markovna looked at the portrait of Raisky's mother, for a long time she looked at the languishing eyes, the melancholy smile. "Yes," she whispered.
Only Marfinka and Vikentev took every dish that was offered them, and chattered without intermission. Vera soon took her leave, followed by Raisky. She went into the park, and stood at the top of the cliff looking down into the dark wood below her; then she wrapped herself in her mantilla, and sat down on the bench. Silently she acceded to Raisky's request to be allowed to sit down beside her.
She did not mean to reveal Raisky's passion for her, which remained her secret. "Perhaps I will ask my cousin," she said. "Or I will collect my strength, and answer the letter myself, so as to make him understand my position and renounce all hope. But in the mean time, I must let him know so that he does not come to the arbour to wait in vain for me." "I will do that," struck in Tatiana Markovna.
Then she loosed her hold of his arm, and hurried in the direction of the precipice, with Raisky hurrying at her heels. When she had gone half way, she stopped, laid her hand on her heart, and listened once more. "A few minutes ago your mind was made up, Vera!" Raisky's face was pale, and his agitation nearly as great as hers. She did not hear his words, and she looked at him without seeing him.
But one day when he came home he found two letters awaiting him, one from Tatiana Markovna, the other from his comrade at the University, Leonid Koslov, who had been installed in Raisky's native place as a master in the Gymnasium. During all these years his aunt had often written to him, and sent him statements of accounts.
Raisky's patience had to suffer a hard trial in Vera's indifference. His courage failed him, and he fell into a dull, fruitless boredom. In this idle mood he drew village scenes in his sketch album he had already sketched nearly every aspect of the Volga to be seen from the house or the cliff and he made notes in his note books.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking