The Duel and Other Stories

y the path. Atchmianov dropped behind and stoppe

" he said, tou

-even

n, looking at the

vna after a brief pause, noticing th

blossomed, so to speak. How do you wish me to understand it? Is it a sort of coquetry

, marvellous evening, looking at him with terror and asking herself with bewilderment, c

d: "Well, I'll wait till you are in a better humour, and meanwhile I venture

ing his way between the bushes. After a shor

!" he said with a sl

did not like him because she owed his father three hundred roubles; it was displeasing to her, too, that a shopkee

cess altogether," he

ly: "Oh, tell them in your shop that Ivan Andreitch will come round in a day or t

red if you would not mention tha

inute be free from her debt. If she, for instance, were to turn the head of this handsome young fool! How amusing, absurd, wild it woul

ianov said timidly. "I beg you to beware of Kiril

Nadyezhda Fyodorovna said coldly, and the amusing thought of

," she said; "th

As is always the case at picnics, in the mass of dinner napkins, parcels, useless greasy papers fluttering in the wind, no one knew where was his glass or where his bread. They poured the wine on the carpet and on their own knees, spilt the salt, while it was dark al

wing lively with the wine. "But I should prefer a fine winter

is taste," obse

breast and face: this hatred on the part of a decent, clever man, a feeling in which there probably lay hid a well-

ture, and I regret that I'm n

odorovna. "I don't understand how any one can seriously interest

s of ants and the claws of beetles, and he always felt vexed that these people, relying on these whiskers, claws, and something they called protoplasm (he always imagined it in the form of an oyster), should undertake to d