Five Great Short Stories Read Online Free PDF Page A

meet him through the park. She was dressed in another frock.
    â€œHere you are at last!” she said. “We are looking for you everywhere. But what has happened to you?” she said with astonishment, gazing at his enraptured, beaming countenance and his eyes that were brimming over with tears. “How strange you look, Andryusha.”
    â€œI am satisfied, Tania,” Kovrin said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “I am more than satisfied, I am happy! Tania, dear Tania, you are a most congenial creature! Dear Tania, I am so glad, so glad!”
    He kissed both her hands passionately and continued:
    â€œI have just passed through bright, beautiful, unearthly moments. But I cannot tell you all because you would call me mad, or you would not believe me. Let us talk of you. Dear, charming Tania! I love you, and I have become used to love you. Your nearness, our meetings, ten times daily have become a necessity for my soul. I don’t know how I shall be able to exist without you, when I go home.”
    Well!” and Tania laughed, “you will forget us in two days. We are little people, and you are a great man.”
    â€œNo, let us talk seriously,” he said. “I will take you with me. Yes? Won’t you come with me? You want to be mine?”
    â€œWell, well!” Tania said and again she wanted to laugh, but laughter would not come, and red spots came out on her face.
    She began to breathe fast, and she walked on very quickly, not towards the house, but deeper into the park.
    â€œI never thought of this . . . never!” she said, clasping her hands as if in despair.
    Kovrin followed her and continued to speak with the same brilliant, excited face.
    â€œI want love that would conquer me entirely, and that love, Tania, you alone can give me. I am happy, happy!”
    She was stupefied, she bent, she shrivelled, she seemed suddenly to grow ten years older, and he thought her beautiful and he expressed his thoughts aloud:
    â€œHow beautiful she is!”

CHAPTER VI
The Black Guest
    WHEN EGOR SEMENYCH heard from Kovrin that the romance had not only begun, but that there was to be a wedding, he walked about the rooms for a long time trying to hide his agitation. His hands began to tremble, his neck seemed to grow thicker and became purple; he ordered his racing droshky 2 to be put to and drove off somewhere. Tania, seeing how he whipped the horse and how low down, almost over his ears, he had pressed his cap, understood his mood, shut herself up in her room and cried all day.
    The peaches and plums were already ripening in the hot-houses; the packing and sending off to Moscow of these delicate and tender goods required much attention, trouble and work. Owing to the summer having been very hot and dry, it was necessary to water every tree; this took up much time and labour; besides multitudes of caterpillars appeared on the trees, which the work-people, as well as Egor Semenych and Tania, crushed with their fingers, to Kovrin’s great disgust. Besides all this work it was necessary to accept orders for fruit and trees for the autumn deliveries, and to carry on a large correspondence. While at the busiest time, when it seemed that nobody had a moment to spare, the season for field work came on and took away more than half the hands from the garden. Egor Semenych, very much sunburnt, exhausted and irritated, rushed about now in the gardens, now in the fields, crying that he was torn to pieces, and that he would send a bullet through his head.
    There was also all the bustle caused by the preparation of the trousseau, on which the Pesotskis set great store; everybody in the house was made quite dizzy by the click of scissors, the noise of sewing machines, the fumes of hot irons and the caprices of the milliner, a nervous lady, who was easily offended. And, as if on purpose, every day saw the arrival of guests, who had to be entertained and fed, and who often even stayed the