Page:The Kiss and Other Stories by Anton Tchekhoff, 1908.pdf/40

 He knew every spot in the old house, the cosy terrace, the turns in the garden paths, the trees outlined against garden and bathing-box. And now in a few seconds when he had passed the wicket-gate, all these would be memories, void for evermore of real significance. A year — two years— would pass, and all these kindly images, dulled beyond restoring, would recur only in memory as the shapeless impressions of a dream.

“In life,” thought Ogneff, as he approached the gate, “there is nothing better than men. Nothing!”

It was warm and still. The whole world smelt of heliotropes, mignonette, and tobacco-plants which had not yet shed their blooms. Around shrubs and tree-trunks flowed a sea of thin, moonlight-soaked mist; and — what long remained in Ogneff's memory — wisps of vapour, white as ghosts, floated with motion imperceptibly slow across the garden path. Near the moon, shining high in heaven, swam transparent patches of cloud. The whole world, it seemed, was built of coal-black shadows and wandering wisps of white; and, to Ogneff, it seemed as if he were looking not at Nature, but at a decorated scene, as if clumsy pyrotechnists, illuminating the garden with white Bengal fire, had flooded the air with a sea of snowy smoke.

As Ogneff approached the wicket-gate a black shadow moved from the low palisade and came to meet him.