waves caressed the ear.

'I would have another bathe,' said Shubin, 'only I'm afraid of being
late. Look at the river; it seems to beckon us. The ancient Greeks
would have beheld a nymph in it. But we are not Greeks, O nymph! we are
thick-skinned Scythians.'

'We have _roussalkas_,' observed Bersenyev.

'Get along with your _roussalkas!_ What's the use to me--a sculptor--of
those children of a cold, terror-stricken fancy, those shapes begotten
in the stifling hut, in the dark of winter nights? I want light,
space.... Good God, when shall I go to Italy? When----'

'To Little Russia, I suppose you mean?'

'For shame, Andrei Petrovitch, to reproach me for an act of
unpremeditated folly, which I have repented bitterly enough without
that. Oh, of course, I behaved like a fool; Anna Vassilyevna most kindly
gave me the money for an expedition to Italy, and I went off to the
Little Russians to eat dumplings and----'

'Don't let me have the rest, please,' interposed Bersenyev.

'Yet still, I will say, the money was not spent in vain. I saw there
such types, especially of women.... Of course, I know; there is no
salvation to be found outside of Italy!'

'You will go to Italy,' said Bersenyev, without turning towards him,
'and will do nothing. You will always be pluming your wings and never
take flight. We know you!'

'Stavasser has taken flight.... And he's not the only one. If I don't
fly, it will prove that I'm a sea penguin, and have no wings. I
am stifled here, I want to be in Italy,' pursued Shubin, 'there is
sunshine, there is beauty.'

A young girl in a large straw hat, with a pink parasol on her shoulder,
came into sight at that instant, in the little path along which the
friends were walking.

'But what do I see? Even here, there is beauty--coming to meet us! A
humble artist's compliments to the enchanting Zoya!' Shubin cried at
once, with a theatrical flourish of his hat.

The young girl to whom this exclamation referred, stopped, threatening
him with her finger, and, waiting for the two friends to come up to her,
she said in a ringing voice:

'Why is it, gentlemen, you don't come in to dinner? It is on the table.'

'What do I hear?' said Shubin, throwing his arms up. 'Can it be that
you, bewitching Zoya, faced such heat to come and look for us? Dare I
think that is the meaning of your words? Tell me, can it be so? Or no,
do not utter that word; I shall die of regret on the spot'

'Oh, do leave off, P