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On reaching a broad level field Riasantzeff pulled up the sweating horse and, placing his hand to his mouth, shouted, in a clear, ringing voice, "Kousma a ... Kousma a a!" At the extreme end of the field, like silhouettes, a row of little men could be descried who, at the sound of Riasantzeff's voice, looked eagerly in his direction.
Her voice, high-pitched and anxious, could be heard, and also his jovial, bantering tones that talk with pretty girls always evoked. "Anatole Pavlovitch has just come from there," said Sina excitedly. Riasantzeff followed her, laughing as usual, and endeavouring to light a cigarette as he entered. "A nice state of things!" he said gaily. "If this goes on we soon shan't have any young people left."
Immediately after Sina's departure, Lialia and Riasantzeff went out. Ivanoff sat pensively smoking his cigarette for a while, as he stared sulkily at a corner of the room. Then he also departed. In the street as he walked along, swinging his arms in the usual way, he thought to himself, in his wrath: "These fools imagine that I am not capable of understanding what they understand! I like that!
True, I did not know of her existence, yet neither did Riasantzeff know of Lialia. At that time we both thought that the woman whom we desired to possess was the real, the sole, the indispensable one. We were wrong then; perhaps we are wrong now. It comes to this, that we must either remain perpetually chaste, or else enjoy absolute sexual liberty, allowing women, of course, to do the same.
The light seemed to have vanished, also. They all suddenly felt concern for his safety and intense curiosity as to what would happen. "Look out for wolves!" cried Riasantzeff. "It's all right. I've got a revolver!" came the answer. It sounded faint and weird. Yourii advanced slowly and with caution. The sides of the cavern were low, uneven, and damp as the walls of a large cellar.
They drove home without uttering another word, and to each the way seemed endless. "You will come in, won't you?" asked Yourii, without looking up. "Er ... No! I have got to see a patient. Besides it is rather late," replied Riasantzeff hesitatingly. Yourii got out of the droschky, not caring to take the gun or the game. Everything that belonged to Riasantzeff he now seemed to loathe.
"I dare say they are enjoying themselves," she observed with a shrug of the shoulders. "Hark!" said Riasantzeff, as the sound of firing reached them. "That was a shot," exclaimed Schafroff. "What's the meaning of it?" cried Lialia, as she nervously clung to her lover's arm. "Don't be frightened! If it is a wolf, at this time of year they are tame, and would never attack two people."
Without a word she pulled her hand away, crossed the room and opened the glass door leading to the balcony. Riasantzeff watched her, calmly, but with slight astonishment. "My Ludmilla Nicolaijevna is cross," he said to Nicolai Yegorovitch with serio-comic gravity of manner. The latter burst out laughing. "You had better go and make it up."
It was followed by a little, old man with a sparse beard and small bright eyes. He carried a rusty single-barrelled gun. "It is grandfather, our guardian," said Kousma. The old man sat down on the ground, deposited his weapon, and looked hard at Yourii and Riasantzeff. "Been out shooting; yes, yes!" he mumbled, showing his shrivelled, discoloured gums. "He! He!
"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.
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