the garden, taking
advantage of the absence of my stern parents, to steal in among the
raspberry bushes, or to pick herself some cherries. If that were
so, dash it all, I would go and have some cherries too. I threw
aside the sum-book and ran into the garden. I ran to the cherry
orchard, but she was not there. Passing by the raspberries, the
gooseberries, and the watchman's shanty, she crossed the kitchen
garden and reached the pond, pale, and starting at every sound. I
stole after her, and what I saw, my friends, was this. At the edge
of the pond, between the thick stumps of two old willows, stood my
elder brother, Sasha; one could not see from his face that he had
toothache. He looked towards Zinotchka as she approached him, and
his whole figure was lighted up by an expression of happiness as
though by sunshine. And Zinotchka, as though she were being driven
into the Cave of Dogs, and were being forced to breathe carbonic
acid gas, walked towards him, scarcely able to move one leg before
the other, breathing hard, with her head thrown back. . . . To judge
from appearances she was going to a rendezous for the first time
in her life. But at last she reached him. . . . For half a minute
they gazed at each other in silence, as though they could not believe
their eyes. Thereupon some force seemed to shove Zinotchka; she
laid her hands on Sasha's shoulders and let her head droop upon his
waistcoat. Sasha laughed, muttered something incoherent, and with
the clumsiness of a man head over ears in love, laid both hands on
Zinotchka's face. And the weather, gentlemen, was exquisite. . . .
The hill behind which the sun was setting, the two willows, the
green bank, the sky--all together with Sasha and Zinotchka were
reflected in the pond . . . perfect stillness . . . you can imagine
it. Millions of butterflies with long whiskers gleamed golden above
the reeds; beyond the garden they were driving the cattle. In fact,
it was a perfect picture.

"Of all I had seen the only thing I understood was that Sasha was
kissing Zinotchka. That was improper. If _maman_ heard of it they
would both catch it. Feeling for some reason ashamed I went back
to the nursery, not waiting for the end of the rendezvous. There I
sat over the sum-book, pondered and reflected. A triumphant smile
strayed upon my countenance. On one side it was agreeable to be the
possessor of another person's secret; on the other it was also very
agreeable that such authoriti