Page:The Kiss and Other Stories by Anton Tchekhoff, 1908.pdf/193

 went away to another married daughter who lived at Oboyan, So Mashenka was left with her child. And there were five draymen, all drunken and impudent; horses and carts; broken fences and soot catching fire in the chimneys — ^no affair at all for a woman. And as I was a neighbour, she would come to me on all sorts of business ; and I did my best for her, arranged more than one affair, gave her advice. And sometimes I would go to her house, have a diink, and a bit of a chat. I was a young man, clever, and I loved to talk about things; and she, too, was educated and had good manners. She dressed neatly and carried a parasol in summer. I remember; I would start upon theology or politics, and she felt flattered by this, and would treat me to tea and jam. . . . In short, grandfather, I will waste no more words on it, a year had not passed when the unclean spirit seized me, the enemy of all mankind! I noticed that when a day passed without meeting Mashenka I felt out of sorts, and was bored. And all my time was spent in finding excuses to call on her. ‘It's time,’ I'd say to myself, ‘to put in the double window-frames’; and I would spend the whole day in her house putting in the frames, and carefully leaving the work unfinished, so as to return next day. ‘We ought to count Vasya's pigeons, and make sure none are lost.’ And so on always. I spent hours talking to her across the fence; and at last, to avoid going round to the door, I made a