ace. It lit up two white eyes. He was totally blind, obviously so
from birth. He stood stock-still before me, and I began to examine his
features.

I confess that I have a violent prejudice against all blind, one-eyed,
deaf, dumb, legless, armless, hunchbacked, and such-like people. I have
observed that there is always a certain strange connection between a
man's exterior and his soul; as, if when the body loses a limb, the soul
also loses some power of feeling.

And so I began to examine the blind boy's face. But what could be read
upon a face from which the eyes are missing?... For a long time I gazed
at him with involuntary compassion, when suddenly a scarcely perceptible
smile flitted over his thin lips, producing, I know not why, a most
unpleasant impression upon me. I began to feel a suspicion that the
blind boy was not so blind as he appeared to be. In vain I endeavoured
to convince myself that it was impossible to counterfeit cataracts; and
besides, what reason could there be for doing such a thing? But I could
not help my suspicions. I am easily swayed by prejudice...

"You are the master's son?" I asked at length.

"No."

"Who are you, then?"

"An orphan--a poor boy."

"Has the mistress any children?"

"No, her daughter ran away and crossed the sea with a Tartar."

"What sort of a Tartar?"

"The devil only knows! A Crimean Tartar, a boatman from Kerch."

I entered the hut. Its whole furniture consisted of two benches and a
table, together with an enormous chest beside the stove. There was not
a single ikon to be seen on the wall--a bad sign! The sea-wind burst
in through the broken window-pane. I drew a wax candle-end from my
portmanteau, lit it, and began to put my things out. My sabre and gun
I placed in a corner, my pistols I laid on the table. I spread my felt
cloak out on one bench, and the Cossack his on the other. In ten minutes
the latter was snoring, but I could not go to sleep--the image of the
boy with the white eyes kept hovering before me in the dark.

About an hour passed thus. The moon shone in at the window and its rays
played along the earthen floor of the hut. Suddenly a shadow flitted
across the bright strip of moonshine which intersected the floor. I
raised myself up a little and glanced out of the window. Again somebody
ran by it and disappeared--goodness knows where! It seemed impossible
for anyone to descend the steep cliff overhanging the shore, but that
was the only thin