his flat
nose). "If you don't stop, I'll leave you right away. What nonsense--to
whimper!"

"Well, I shan't, I shan't," said Akulina hastily, swallowing the tears
with an effort. "So you're going away to-morrow?" she added, after
a brief silence. "When will it please God to have me meet you again,
Victor Alexandrich?"

"We'll meet, we'll meet again. If it isn't next year, it'll be later. My
master, it seems, wants to enter the service in St. Petersburg," he went
on, pronouncing the words carelessly and somewhat indistinctly. "And it
may be that we'll go abroad."

"You will forget me, Victor Alexandrich," said Akulina sadly.

"No--why should I? I'll not forget you, only you had rallier be
sensible; don't make a fool of yourself; obey your father--And I'll not
forget you--Oh, no; oh, no." And he stretched himself calmly and yawned
again.

"Do not forget me, Victor Alexandrich," she resumed in a beseeching
voice. "I have loved you so much, it seems--all, it seems, for you--You
tell me to obey father, Victor Alexandrich--How am I to obey my
father--?"

"How's that?" He pronounced these words as if from the stomach, lying on
his back and holding his hands under his head.

"Why, Victor Alexandrich--you know it yourself--"

She fell silent. Victor fingered his steel watch-chain.

"Akulina, you are not a foolish girl," he said at last, "therefore don't
talk nonsense. It's for your own good, do you understand me? Of course,
you are not foolish, you're not altogether a peasant, so to say, and
your mother wasn't always a peasant either. Still, you are without
education--therefore you must obey when you are told to."

"But it's terrible, Victor Alexandrich."

"Oh, what nonsense, my dear--what is she afraid of! What is that you
have there," he added, moving close to her, "flowers?"

"Flowers," replied Akulina sadly. "I have picked some field tansies,"
she went on, with some animation. "They're good for the calves, And here
I have some marigolds--for scrofula. Here, look, what a pretty flower!
I haven't seen such a pretty flower in all my life. Here are
forget-me-nots, and--and these I have picked for you," she added, taking
from under the tansies a small bunch of cornflowers, tied around with a
thin blade of grass; "do you want them?"

Victor held out his hand lazily, took the flowers, smelt them
carelessly, and began to turn them around in his fingers, looking up
with thoughtful importance. Akulina gazed at him. Th