His joy in life was so great that it agitated him, and kept him
awake many a night, especially when it was moonlight, so that
instead of sleeping he wandered about in the garden till dawn,
alone with his dreams and fancies.
And so, peacefully and happily, he lived through the first month
of his stay with his aunts, taking no particular notice of their
half-ward, half-servant, the black-eyed, quick-footed Katusha.
Then, at the age of nineteen, Nekhludoff, brought up under his
mother's wing, was still quite pure. If a woman figured in his
dreams at all it was only as a wife. All the other women, who,
according to his ideas he could not marry, were not women for
him, but human beings.
But on Ascension Day that summer, a neighbour of his aunts', and
her family, consisting of two young daughters, a schoolboy, and a
young artist of peasant origin who was staying with them, came to
spend the day. After tea they all went to play in the meadow in
front of the house, where the grass had already been mown. They
played at the game of gorelki, and Katusha joined them. Running
about and changing partners several times, Nekhludoff caught
Katusha, and she became his partner. Up to this time he had liked
Katusha's looks, but the possibility of any nearer relations with
her had never entered his mind.
"Impossible to catch those two," said the merry young artist,
whose turn it was to catch, and who could run very fast with his
short, muscular legs.
"You! And not catch us?" said Katusha.
"One, two, three," and the artist clapped his hands. Katusha,
hardly restraining her laughter, changed places with Nekhludoff,
behind the artist's back, and pressing his large hand with her
little rough one, and rustling with her starched petticoat, ran
to the left. Nekhludoff ran fast to the right, trying to escape
from the artist, but when he looked round he saw the artist
running after Katusha, who kept well ahead, her firm young legs
moving rapidly. There was a lilac bush in front of them, and
Katusha made a sign with her head to Nekhludoff to join her
behind it, for if they once clasped hands again they were safe
from their pursuer, that being a rule of the game. He understood
the sign, and ran behind the bush, but he did not know that there
was a small ditch overgrown with nettles there. He stumbled and
fell into the nettles, already wet with dew, stinging his bands,
but rose immediately, laughing at his mishap.
Katusha, with her eyes black as sloes, her face radiant with joy,
was flying towards him, and they caught hold of each other's
hands.
"Got stung, I daresay?" she said, arranging her hair with her
free hand, breathing fast and looking straight up at him with a
glad, pleasant smile.