y."

So I withdrew a little. In my breast a sort of weariness was lurking,
but also in my breast there was echoing a soft and glorious chorus of
birds, a chorus so exquisitely in accord with the never-ceasing splash
of the sea that for ever could I have listened to it, and to the
neighbouring brook as it purled on its way like a maiden engaged in
relating confidences about her lover.

Presently, the woman's yellow-scarfed head (the scarf now tidily
rearranged) reappeared over the bushes.

"Come, come, good woman!" was my exclamation. "I tell you that you must
not move about so soon."

And certainly her attitude now was one of utter languor, and she had
perforce to grasp the stem of a bush with one hand to support herself.
Yet while the blood was gone from her face, there had formed in the
hollows where her eyes had been two lakes of blue.

"See how he is sleeping!" she murmured.

And, true enough, the child was sound asleep, though to my eyes he
looked much as any other baby might have done, save that the couch of
autumn leaves on which he was ensconced consisted of leaves of a kind
which could not have been discovered in the faraway forests of Orlov.

"Now, do you yourself lie down awhile," was my advice.

"Oh, no," she replied with a shake of her head on its sinuous neck;
"for I must be collecting my things before I move on towards--"

"Towards Otchenchiri"

"Yes. By now my folk will have gone many a verst in that direction."

"And can you walk so far?"

"The Holy Mother will help me."

Yes, she was to journey in the company of the Mother of God. So no more
on the point required to be said.

Glancing again at the tiny, inchoate face under the bushes, her eyes
diffused rays of warm and kindly light as, licking her lips, she, with
a slow movement, smoothed the breast of the little one.

Then I arranged sticks for a fire, and also adjusted stones to support
the kettle.

"Soon I will have tea ready for you," I remarked.

"And thankful indeed I shall be," she responded, "for my breasts are
dried up."

"Why have your companions deserted you?" I said next.

"They have not deserted me. It was I that left them of my own accord.
How could I have exposed myself in their presence?"

And with a glance at me she raised a hand to her face as, spitting a
gout of blood, she smiled a sort of bashful smile.

"This is your first child, I take it?"

"It is.... And who are you?"

"A man."

"Yes, a man, of co