Page:The Kiss and Other Stories by Anton Tchekhoff, 1908.pdf/141

 From June till autumn the artists' tour on the Volga, and in this tour, as member of the Artists' Association, Olga Ivanovna would take part. She had already ordered two expensive dresses of gingham, and laid in a stock of colours, brushes, canvas, and a new palette. Almost every day came Riabovsky to watch her progress in painting. When she showed him her work he thrust his hands deep in his pockets, compressed tightly his lips, grunted, and said —

"So! This cloud of yours glares; the light is not right for evening. The foreground is somehow chewed up, and there is something, you understand And the cabin is somehow crushed you should make that corner a little darker. But on the whole it's not badI can praise it."

And the less intelligibly he spoke the better Olga Ivanovna understood.

After dinner, on the second day of Trinity week, Duimoff bought some hors d'œuvres and sweets and took train for his villa in the country. Two whole weeks he had not seen his wife, and he longed to be with her again. During the journey and afterwards, as he searched for the villa in a big wood, he felt hungry and fatigued, and rejoiced at the thought of