from the girls, crouched down like a cat and then suddenly started
running lightly, holding his dagger to steady it: not homeward,
however, but towards the cornet's house. Having passed two streets
he turned into a lane and lifting the skirt of his coat sat down
on the ground in the shadow of a fence. 'A regular cornet's
daughter!' he thought about Maryanka. 'Won't even have a lark--the
devil! But just wait a bit.'

The approaching footsteps of a woman attracted his attention. He
began listening, and laughed all by himself. Maryanka with bowed
head, striking the pales of the fences with a switch, was walking
with rapid regular strides straight towards him. Lukashka rose.
Maryanka started and stopped.

'What an accursed devil! You frightened me! So you have not gone
home?' she said, and laughed aloud.

Lukashka put one arm round her and with the other hand raised her
face. 'What I wanted to tell you, by Heaven!' his voice trembled
and broke.

'What are you talking of, at night time!' answered Maryanka.
'Mother is waiting for me, and you'd better go to your
sweetheart.'

And freeing herself from his arms she ran away a few steps. When
she had reached the wattle fence of her home she stopped and
turned to the Cossack who was running beside her and still trying
to persuade her to stay a while with him.