earlier, and if she stayed on till late in the evening, or spent
the night with us, there would be no end to the agitation.

"Good Heavens, what a baby you are still!" said Masha reproachfully.
"It is positively absurd."

"Yes, it is absurd," my sister agreed, "I know it's absurd; but
what is to be done if I haven't the strength to get over it? I keep
feeling as though I were doing wrong."

At haymaking I ached all over from the unaccustomed labour; in the
evening, sitting on the verandah and talking with the others, I
suddenly dropped asleep, and they laughed aloud at me. They waked
me up and made me sit down to supper; I was overpowered with
drowsiness and I saw the lights, the faces, and the plates as it
were in a dream, heard the voices, but did not understand them. And
getting up early in the morning, I took up the scythe at once, or
went to the building and worked hard all day.

When I remained at home on holidays I noticed that my sister and
Masha were concealing something from me, and even seemed to be
avoiding me. My wife was tender to me as before, but she had thoughts
of her own apart, which she did not share with me. There was no
doubt that her exasperation with the peasants was growing, the life
was becoming more and more distasteful to her, and yet she did not
complain to me. She talked to the doctor now more readily than she
did to me, and I did not understand why it was so.

It was the custom in our province at haymaking and harvest time for
the labourers to come to the manor house in the evening and be