for you as
for everyone else. This feverish life is impossible. Matrena Petrovna is
getting us all ill, and we shall be prostrated."

"Yesterday," said Boris, "I looked at the villa for a half-hour from
my window. Dear, dear villa, dear night when I can feel you breathing,
living near me. As if you had been against my heart. I could have wept
because I could hear Michael snoring in his chamber. He seemed happy.
At last, I heard nothing more, there was nothing more to hear but the
double chorus of frogs in the pools of the island. Our pools, Natacha,
are like the enchanted lakes of the Caucasus which are silent by day and
sing at evening; there are innumerable throngs of frogs which sing on
the same chord, some of them on a major and some on a minor. The chorus
speaks from pool to pool, lamenting and moaning across the fields and
gardens, and re-echoing like AEolian harps placed opposite one another."

"Do AEolian harps make so much noise, Boris?"

"You laugh? I don't find you yourself half the time. It is Michael who
has changed you, and I am out of it. (Here they spoke in Russian.)
I shall not be easy until I am your husband. I can't understand your
manner with Michael at all."

(Here more Russian words which I do not understand.)

"Speak French; here is the gardener," said Natacha.

"I do not like the way you are managing our lives. Why do you delay our
marriage? Why?"

(Russian words from Natacha. Gesture of desperation from Boris.)

"How long? You say a long time? But that says nothing--a long time. How
long? A year? Two years? Ten years? Tell me, or I will kill myself at
your feet. No, no; speak or I will kill Michael. On my word! Like a
dog!"

"I swear to you, by the dear head of your mother, Boris, that the date
of our marriage does not depend on Michael."

(Some words in Russian. Boris, a little consoled, holds her hand
lingeringly to his lips.)

Conversation between Michael and Natacha in the garden:

"Well? Have you told him?"

"I ended at last by making him understand that there is not any hope.
None. It is necessary to have patience. I have to have it myself."

"He is stupid and provoking."

"Stupid, no. Provoking, yes, if you wish. But you also, you are
provoking."

"Natacha! Natacha!"

(Here more Russian.) As Natacha started to leave, Michael placed his
hand on her shoulder, stopped her and said, looking her direct in the
eyes:

"There will be a letter from Annouchka this evening, b