"Will you answer?"
"Answer what?"
"The question I asked you the other day," said Olenin, stooping to her ear. "Will you marry me?"
Maryanka thought for a moment.
"I"ll tell you," said she, "I"ll tell you to-night."
And through the darkness her eyes gleamed brightly and kindly at the young man.
He still followed her. He enjoyed stooping closer to her. But Lukashka, without ceasing to sing, suddenly seized her firmly by the hand and pulled her from her place in the ring of girls into the middle. Olenin had only time to say, "Come to Ustenka"s," and stepped back to his companion.
The song came to an end. Lukashka wiped his lips, Maryanka did the same, and they kissed. "No, no, kisses five!" said Lukashka. Chatter, laughter, and running about, succeeded to the rhythmic movements and sound. Lukashka, who seemed to have drunk a great deal, began to distribute sweetmeats to the girls.
"I offer them to everyone!" he said with proud, comically pathetic self-admiration. "But anyone who goes after soldiers goes out of the ring!" he suddenly added, with an angry glance at Olenin.
The girls grabbed his sweetmeats from him, and, laughing, struggled for them among themselves. Beletski and Olenin stepped aside.
Lukashka, as if ashamed of his generosity, took off his cap and wiping his forehead with his sleeve came up to Maryanka and Ustenka.
"Answer me, my dear, dost thou hold me in contempt?" he said in the words of the song they had just been singing, and turning to Maryanka he angrily repeated the words: "Dost thou hold me in contempt? When we shall married be thou wilt weep because of me!" he added, embracing Ustenka and Maryanka both together.
Ustenka tore herself away, and swinging her arm gave him such a blow on the back that she hurt her hand.
"Well, are you going to have another turn?" he asked.
"The other girls may if they like," answered Ustenka, "but I am going home and Maryanka was coming to our house too."
With his arm still round her, Lukashka led Maryanka away from the crowd to the darker corner of a house.
"Don"t go, Maryanka," he said, "let"s have some fun for the last time.
Go home and I will come to you!"
"What am I to do at home? Holidays are meant for merrymaking. I am going to Ustenka"s," replied Maryanka.
"I"ll marry you all the same, you know!"
"All right," said Maryanka, "we shall see when the time comes."
"So you are going," said Lukashka sternly, and, pressing her close, he kissed her on the cheek.
"There, leave off! Don"t bother," and Maryanka, wrenching herself from his arms, moved away.
"Ah my girl, it will turn out badly," said Lukashka reproachfully and stood still, shaking his head. "Thou wilt weep because of me..." and turning away from her he shouted to the other girls:
"Now then! Play away!"
What he had said seemed to have frightened and vexed Maryanka. She stopped, "What will turn out badly?"
"Why, that!"
"That what?"
"Why, that you keep company with a soldier-lodger and no longer care for me!"
"I"ll care just as long as I choose. You"re not my father, nor my mother. What do you want? I"ll care for whom I like!"
"Well, all right..." said Lukashka, "but remember!" He moved towards the shop. "Girls!" he shouted, "why have you stopped? Go on dancing.
Nazarka, fetch some more chikhir."
"Well, will they come?" asked Olenin, addressing Beletski.
"They"ll come directly," replied Beletski. "Come along, we must prepare the ball."
Chapter x.x.xIX
It was already late in the night when Olenin came out of Beletski"s hut following Maryanka and Ustenka. He saw in the dark street before him the gleam of the girl"s white kerchief. The golden moon was descending towards the steppe. A silvery mist hung over the village. All was still; there were no lights anywhere and one heard only the receding footsteps of the young women. Olenin"s heart beat fast. The fresh moist atmosphere cooled his burning face. He glanced at the sky and turned to look at the hut he had just come out of: the candle was already out.
Then he again peered through the darkness at the girls" retreating shadows. The white kerchief disappeared in the mist. He was afraid to remain alone, he was so happy. He jumped down from the porch and ran after the girls.
"Bother you, someone may see..." said Ustenka.
"Never mind!"
Olenin ran up to Maryanka and embraced her.
Maryanka did not resist.
"Haven"t you kissed enough yet?" said Ustenka. "Marry and then kiss, but now you"d better wait."
"Good-night, Maryanka. To-morrow I will come to see your father and tell him. Don"t you say anything."
"Why should I!" answered Maryanka.
Both the girls started running. Olenin went on by himself thinking over all that had happened. He had spent the whole evening alone with her in a corner by the oven. Ustenka had not left the hut for a single moment, but had romped about with the other girls and with Beletski all the time. Olenin had talked in whispers to Maryanka.
"Will you marry me?" he had asked.
"You"d deceive me and not have me," she replied cheerfully and calmly.
"But do you love me? Tell me for G.o.d"s sake!"
"Why shouldn"t I love you? You don"t squint," answered Maryanka, laughing and with her hard hands squeezing his....