all day; she was secretly ashamed of her tears, and she
slept very badly. Sitting half-dressed at her little piano, at times she
played some chords, hardly audibly for fear of waking Mlle. Boncourt,
and then let her forehead fall on the cold keys and remained a long
while motionless. She kept thinking, not of Rudin himself, but of some
word he had uttered, and she was wholly buried in her own thought.
Sometimes she recollected Volintsev. She knew that he loved her. But her
mind did not dwell on him more than an instant.... She felt a strange
agitation. In the morning she dressed hurriedly and went down, and after
saying good-morning to her mother, seized an opportunity and went out
alone into the garden.... It was a hot day, bright and sunny in spite of
occasional showers of rain. Slight vapoury clouds sailed smoothly over
the clear sky, scarcely obscuring the sun, and at times a downpour
of rain fell suddenly in sheets, and was as quickly over. The thickly
falling drops, flashing like diamonds, fell swiftly with a kind of dull
thud; the sunshine glistened through their sparkling drops; the grass,
that had been rustling in the wind, was still, thirstily drinking in the
moisture; the drenched trees were languidly shaking all their leaves;
the birds were busily singing, and it was pleasant to hear their
twittering chatter mingling with the fresh gurgle and murmur of the
running rain-water. The dusty roads were steaming and slightly spotted
by the smart strokes of the thick drops. Then the clouds passed over,
a slight breeze began to stir, and the grass began to take tints of
emerald and gold. The trees seemed more transparent with their wet
leaves clinging together. A strong scent arose from all around.

The sky was almost cloudless again when Natalya came into the garden. It
was full of sweetness and peace--that soothing, blissful peace in which
the heart of man is stirred by a sweet languor of undefined desire and
secret emotion.

Natalya walked along a long line of silver poplars beside the pond;
suddenly, as if he had sprung out of the earth, Rudin stood before her.
She was confused. He looked her in the face.

'You are alone?' he inquired.

'Yes, I am alone,' replied Natalya, 'but I was going back directly. It
is time I was home.'

'I will go with you.'

And he walked along beside her.

'You seem melancholy,' he said.

'I--I was just going to say that I thought you were out of spirits.'

'Very likely--it i