nd with a long chestnut braid, she was a worthy match for the
handsome Ignat. He was happy and proud of his wife and loved her with
the passionate love of a healthy man, but he soon began to contemplate
her thoughtfully, with a vigilant eye.

Seldom did a smile cross the oval, demure face of his wife--she was
always thinking of something foreign to life, and in her calm blue eyes
something dark and misanthropic was flashing at times. Whenever she was
free from household duties she seated herself in the most spacious room
by the window, and sat there silently for two or three hours. Her
face was turned toward the street, but the look of her eyes was so
indifferent to everything that lived and moved there beyond the window,
and at the same time it was so fixedly deep, as though she were looking
into her very soul. And her walk, too, was queer. Natalya moved about
the spacious room slowly and carefully, as if something invisible
restrained the freedom of her movements. Their house was filled with
heavy and coarsely boastful luxury; everything there was resplendent,
screaming of the proprietor's wealth, but the Cossack-wife walked past
the costly furniture and the silverware in a shy and somewhat frightened
manner, as though fearing lest they might seize and choke her.
Evidently, the noisy life of the big commercial town did not interest
this silent woman, and whenever she went out driving with her husband,
her eyes were fixed on the back of the driver. When her husband took
her visiting she went and behaved there just as queerly as at home; when
guests came to her house, she zealously served them refreshments, taking
no interest whatever in what was said, and showing preference toward
none. Only Mayakin, a witty, droll man, at times called forth on her
face a smile, as vague as a shadow. He used to say of her:

"It's a tree--not a woman! But life is like an inextinguishable
wood-pile, and every one of us blazes up sometimes. She, too, will take
fire; wait, give her time. Then we shall see how she will bloom."

"Eh!" Ignat used to say to her jestingly. "What are you thinking about?
Are you homesick? Brighten up a bit!"

She would remain silent, calmly looking at him.

"You go entirely too often to the church. You should wait. You have
plenty of time to pray for your sins. Commit the sins first. You know,
if you don't sin you don't repent; if you don't repent, you don't work
out your salvation. You better sin while you a