"Women are the very devil!" he thought.

"What's the matter with you?" he asked testily, and his face flushed.

As if the question had brought something to her mind, she suddenly

covered her face with both hands and burst into tears. She wept just as

peasant-women weep, sobbing loudly, her face buried in her hands, her

body being bent forward, while her dishevelled hair drooped over her

wet, distorted countenance. Sarudine was utterly nonplussed. He smiled,

though yet afraid that this might give offence, and tried to pull away

her hands from her face. Lida stubbornly resisted, weeping all the

while.

"Oh! my God!" he exclaimed. He longed to shout at her, to wrench her

hands aside, to call her hard names, "What are you whining for like this? You've gone wrong with me, worse

luck, and there it is! Why all this weeping just to-day? For heaven's

sake, stop!" Speaking thus roughly, he caught hold of her hand.

The jerk caused her head to oscillate to and fro. She suddenly stopped

crying, and removed her hands from her tear-stained face, looking up at

him in childish fear. A crazy thought flashed through her mind that

anybody might strike her now. But Sarudine's manner again softened, and

he said in a consoling voice: "Come, my Lidotschka, don't cry any more! You're to blame, as well! Why

make a scene? You've lost a lot, I know; but, still, we had so much

happiness, too, didn't we? And we must just forget...." Lida began to

sob once more.

"Oh! stop it, do!" he shouted. Then he walked across the room,

nervously pulling his moustache, and his lips quivered.

In the room it was quite still. Outside the window the slender boughs

of a tree swayed gently, as if a bird had just perched thereon.

Sarudine, endeavouring to check himself, approached Lida, and gently

placed his arm round her waist. But she instantly broke away from him

and in so doing struck him violently on the chin, so that his teeth

rattled.

"Devil take it!" he exclaimed angrily. It hurt him considerably, and

the droll sound of his rattling teeth annoyed him even more. Lida had

not heard this, yet instinctively she felt that Sarudine's position was

a ridiculous one, and with feminine cruelty she took advantage of it.

"What words to use!" she said, imitating him.

"It's enough to make any one furious," replied Sarudine peevishly.

"If only I knew what was the matter!"

"You mean to say that you still don't know?" said Lida in a cutting

tone.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024