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'But, Maria Nikolaevna, what interest can there be for you '

'Stop, stop You don't understand ed her shoulders 'He's got a betrothed like an antique statue, is it likely I a to sell, and I'oods are like Well, of course, you must shohat they are like I don't only want to knohat I' froinco abroad? And where have you been up till now? Only don't walk so fast, we're in no hurry'

'I came here from Italy, where I spent several months'

'Ah, you feel, it see Italian It's strange you didn't find your lady-love there Are you fond of art? of pictures? orbeautiful'

'And music?'

'I likebut Russian songs--and that in the country and in the spring--with dancing, you knowred shirts, wreaths of beads, the young grass in the meadows, the s of me Go on, tellat Sanin She was tall--her face was alan to talk--at first reluctantly, unskilfully--but afterwards he talked more freely, chattered away in fact Maria Nikolaevna was a very good listener; and moreover she seemed herself so frank, that she led others unconsciously on to frankness She possessed that great gift of 'intimateness'--le terrible don de la familiarité--to which Cardinal Retz refers Sanin talked of his travels, of his life in Petersburg, of his youth Had Maria Nikolaevna been a lady of fashion, with refined manners, he would never have opened out so; but she herself spoke of herself as a 'good felloho had no patience with ceremony of any sort; it was in those words that she characterised herself to Sanin And at the sarace, slightly bending towards hiood felloalked in the for, fiery, soft and seductive char of us poor weak sinful men--only Slav natures are possessed, and but few of then alloy Sanin's ith Maria Nikolaevna, Sanin's talk with Maria Nikolaevna lasted over an hour And they did not stop once; they kept walking about the endless avenues of the park, now oing down into the valley, and getting hidden in the thick shadows,--and all the while arm-in-arm At times Sanin felt positively irritated; he had never walked so long with Ge Gemmabut this lady had simply taken possession of him, and there was no escape! 'Aren't you tired?' he said to her et tired,' she answered Now and then theyin the park; alingly To one of them, a very handsome, fashionably dressed dark man, she called from a distance with the best Parisian accent, 'Comte, vous savez, il ne faut pas venir me voir--ni aujourd'hui ni de, and dropped a lo