Page:Pushkin - Russian Romance (King, 1875).djvu/179

 and ran headlong towards the farm, where Nastia was awaiting her. There she changed her dress, gave disconnected answers to the questions of her impatient confidante, and proceeded to the drawing-room. The table was laid, breakfast ready, and Miss Jackson, already painted and laced in until her figure assumed the shape of a wine-glass, was cutting thin slices of bread and butter. Her father praised her for taking an early walk.

"There is nothing healthier," said he, "than to rise with the dawn." And he thereupon cited several instances of human longevity, taken from English journals, remarking that none of those who had lived over a century had been addicted to spirits, and that they all rose at daybreak in winter as in summer.

Lisa did not listen to him. She was mentally reviewing all the circumstances attending her morning meeting and the entire conversation of Akulina with the young sportsman, and her conscience began to smite her. It was in vain that she tried to persuade herself that the nature of their interview had not exceeded the bounds of propriety, that her frolic could have no consequences whatever,—her conscience spoke louder than her reason. The promise she had made for the next day tormented her more than anything, and she was all but determined not to keep to her solemn oath. But might not Aleksèy, after vainly expecting her, go into the village, and find Vasily the blacksmith's daughter, the real Akulina, a fat, pock-marked girl, and thus obtain a clue to her thoughtless artifice? This idea horrified Lisa, and she made up her mind to appear in the wood as Akulina, the next morning.