gaze evidently confused the girl.

'Well, Maryanka! I hear they've quartered one of the chiefs on
you?' he said, drawing nearer.

Maryanka, as was her wont, waited before she replied, and slowly
raising her eyes looked at the Cossack. Lukashka's eyes were
laughing as if something special, apart from what was said, was
taking place between himself and the girl.

'Yes, it's all right for them as they have two huts,' replied an
old woman on Maryanka's behalf, 'but at Fomushkin's now they also
have one of the chiefs quartered on them and they say one whole
corner is packed full with his things, and the family have no room
left. Was such a thing ever heard of as that they should turn a
whole horde loose in the village?' she said. 'And what the plague
are they going to do here?'

'I've heard say they'll build a bridge across the Terek,' said one
of the girls.

'And I've been told that they will dig a pit to put the girls in
because they don't love the lads,' said Nazarka, approaching
Ustenka; and he again made a whimsical gesture which set everybody
laughing, and Ergushov, passing by Maryanka, who was next in turn,
began to embrace an old woman.

'Why don't you hug Maryanka? You should do it to each in turn,'
said Nazarka.