LOVE AT FIRST

ark copper-colored face, surly little pig's eyes, and such deep furrows on his forehead and temples as I had never beheld in my life. He was carrying a pla

asyekin at hom

ing female voice s

he extremely threadbare hind part of his livery with a solitary reddish

n. The man muttered something in reply. 'Eh.... Has someone come?' I

ng his appearance once more, and picking up the plate from th

rriedly set down where it stood. At the window in an easy chair with a broken arm was sitting a woman of fifty, bare-he

to her a

of addressing Pr

Zasyekin; you are

to you with a mess

ifaty, where are my ke

. She heard me out, drumming with her fat red fingers on the wi

he observed at last. 'But how young

lied, with an in

papers covered with writing, raised them right

ound restlessly on her chair. 'And do you, pray,

ng her unprepossessing person w

way stood the girl I had seen the previous evening in the garde

ting her with her elbow. 'Zinotchka, the son of our

, getting up, and stut

r father

rovi

se name was Vladimir Petrovitch too. Vonifaty! d

the same smile, faintly fluttering her eyeli

The silvery note of her voice ran through me with a

ase,' I

hat?' asked

ess did not ans

just now?' she said, no

, n

lp me wind some wool?

ent out of the drawing

Though, indeed, at the moment, I was scarcely capable of noticing anything; I moved as if in a

f droll deliberation and with the same bright sly smile on her slightly parted lips. She began to wind the wool on a bent card, and all at once she dazzled me with a glance so brilliant and rapid, t

ieu Voldemar?' she asked after a brief p

ht nothing ... how can I?..

ou, I have just heard, are sixteen, and I am twenty-one: you see I'm a great deal older than you, and so you oug

ile of approbation. 'Look at me,' she said, dropping her voice caressingly: 'I don't dislike that ...

... ' I wa

a bad habit for children' – (she corrected herself) 'for young people – not to say straig

o show her that she had not a mere boy to deal with, and assuming as easy and serious an air as I cou

eliberately. 'Have you a

d a tutor for a

t a month since I had p

n – you are qu

Hold your hands straight!' And she appl

er fluffy golden curls, her innocent neck, her sloping shoulders, and her tender untroubled bosom. I gazed at her, and how dear and near she was already to me! It seemed to me I had known her a long while and had never known anything nor lived at all till I met her.... She was wearing a dark and rather shabby dress and an apron; I would gladly, I felt, have kissed every fold of that dre

and I could have stayed in that roo

d once more her clear eyes shone k

said slowly, and she hel

ees all,' flashed through my mind. 'And how

sound in the next room

in the drawing room, 'Byelovzo

p from her chair impetuously, she flung

f the room, a tabby kitten was lying with outstretched paws; Zinaïda was on her knees before it, cautiously lifting its little face. Near the old pri

d its eyes are not grey, but green, and what long ea

had seen the evening before, smiled and bowed with a c

o possess a tabby kitten with long ears ... so I obt

eeble mew and began

Zinaïda. 'Vonifaty, S

r neck, came in with a saucer of milk and set it before t

e it has!' remarked Zinaï