"Why not?"
"He is afraid; you are sportsmen; you might set the mill on fire; you"ve firearms with you, to be sure."
"But what nonsense!"
"We had our mill on fire like that last year; some fish-dealers stayed the night, and they managed to set it on fire somehow."
"But, my good friend, we can"t sleep in the open air!"
"That"s your business." He went away, his boots clacking as he walked.
Yermola promised him various unpleasant things in the future. "Let us go to the village," he brought out at last, with a sigh. But it was two miles to the village.
"Let us stay the night here," I said, "in the open air--the night is warm; the miller will let us have some straw if we pay for it."
Yermola agreed without discussion. We began again to knock.
"Well, what do you want?" the workman"s voice was heard again; "I"ve told you we can"t."
We explained to him what we wanted. He went to consult the master of the house, and returned with him. The little side gate creaked. The miller appeared, a tall, fat-faced man with a bull-neck, round-bellied and corpulent. He agreed to my proposal. A hundred paces from the mill there was a little outhouse open to the air on all sides. They carried straw and hay there for us; the workman set a samovar down on the gra.s.s near the river, and, squatting on his heels, began to blow vigorously into the pipe of it. The embers glowed, and threw a bright light on his young face. The miller ran to wake his wife, and suggested at last that I myself should sleep in the cottage; but I preferred to remain in the open air. The miller"s wife brought us milk, eggs, potatoes and bread.
Soon the samovar boiled, and we began drinking tea. A mist had risen from the river; there was no wind; from all round came the cry of the corn-crake, and faint sounds from the mill-wheels of drops that dripped from the paddles and of water gurgling through the bars of the lock. We built a small fire on the ground. While Yermola was baking the potatoes in the embers, I had time to fall into a doze. I was waked by a discreetly-subdued whispering near me. I lifted my head; before the fire, on a tub turned upside down, the miller"s wife sat talking to my huntsman. By her dress, her movements, and her manner of speaking, I had already recognised that she had been in domestic service, and was neither peasant nor city-bred; but now for the first time I got a clear view of her features. She looked about thirty; her thin, pale face still showed the traces of remarkable beauty; what particularly charmed me was her eyes, large and mournful in expression. She was leaning her elbows on her knees, and had her face in her hands. Yermola was sitting with his back to me, and thrusting sticks into the fire.
"They"ve the cattle-plague again at Zheltonhiny," the miller"s wife was saying; "father Ivan"s two cows are dead--Lord have mercy on them!"
"And how are your pigs doing?" asked Yermola, after a brief pause.
"They"re alive."
"You ought to make me a present of a sucking pig."
The miller"s wife was silent for a while, then she sighed.
"Who is it you"re with?" she asked.
"A gentleman from Kostomarovo."
Yermola threw a few pine twigs on the fire; they all caught fire at once, and a thick white smoke came puffing into his face.
"Why didn"t your husband let us into the cottage?"
"He"s afraid."
"Afraid! the fat old tub! Arina Timofyevna, my darling, bring me a little gla.s.s of spirits."
The miller"s wife rose and vanished into the darkness. Yermola began to sing in an undertone--
"When I went to see my sweetheart, I wore out all my shoes."
Arina returned with a small flask and a gla.s.s. Yermola got up, crossed himself, and drank it off at a draught. "Good!" was his comment.
The miller"s wife sat down again on the tub.
"Well, Arina Timofyevna, are you still ill?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"My cough troubles me at night."
"The gentleman"s asleep, it seems," observed Yermola after a short silence. "Don"t go to a doctor, Arina; it will be worse if you do."
"Well, I am not going."
"But come and pay me a visit."
Arina hung down her head dejectedly.
"I will drive my wife out for the occasion," continued Yermola "Upon my word, I will."
"You had better wake the gentleman, Yermola Petrovitch; you see, the potatoes are done."
"Oh, let him snore," observed my faithful servant indifferently; "he"s tired with walking, so he sleeps sound."
I turned over in the hay. Yermola got up and came to me. "The potatoes are ready; will you come and eat them?"
I came out of the outhouse; the miller"s wife got up from the tub and was going away. I addressed her.
"Have you kept this mill long?"
"It"s two years since I came on Trinity day."
"And where does your husband come from?"
Arina had not caught my question.
"Where"s your husband from?" repeated Yermola, raising his voice.
"From Byelev. He"s a Byelev townsman."
"And are you too from Byelev?"
"No, I"m a serf; I was a serf."
"Whose?"
"Zvyerkoff was my master. Now I am free."