Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/90

 74 A golden night! Stillness, light, aroma and beneficent, vivifying warmth. On the other side of the garden, in the distance beyond the ravine, someone struck up a loud song; near the fence in a thicket of bird-cherries a nightingale poured forth its shrill song; in a cage on a high pole a sleepy quail jumped about; the fat horse breathed heavily behind the stable wall; and on the other side of the garden fence a pack of gay dogs ran noiselessly across the common and disappeared in the strange, formless, black shade of the old, half-ruined salt-warehouses.

Katerina Lvovna leaned on her elbow and looked at the high grass of the garden; the grass seemed to be playing with the moonbeams, that fell in small flickers on the leaves and blossoms of the trees.

All was gilded by these capricious bright spots that twinkled and trembled everywhere like fiery butterflies, as if the grass under the trees had been caught in a net of moonbeams and moved from side to side.

"Ah, Serezhechka, how beautiful," cried Katerina Lvovna, looking round.

Sergei looked round with indifference.

"Serezha, why are you so joyless? Are you already tired of my love?"

"Don't talk nonsense," answered Sergei shortly, and bending down kissed Katerina Lvovna lazily.