Page:The Kiss and Other Stories by Anton Tchekhoff, 1908.pdf/52

 his searchings he could not find in his heart a single spark.

And he listened silently while she said that she could know no greater happiness than to see him, to follow him, to go with him wheresoever he might go, to be his wife and helper. . . and that if he abandoned her she would die of grief.

“I cannot stay here,” she exclaimed, wringing her hands. “I have come to detest this house, and this wood, and this air. I am tired of this changeless restfulness and aimless life; I can stand no longer our colourless, pale people, as like one another as two drops of water! They are genial and kind. . . because they are contented, because they have never suflfered and never struggled. But I can stand it no more. . . . I want to go to the big grey houses, where people suffer, embittered by labour and need. . . .”

And all this seemed to Ogneff affected and unreal. When Vera ceased to speak he was still without an answer. But silence was impossible, and he stammered out —

“I. . . Vera Gavriilovna. . . I am very grateful to you, although I feel that I deserve no such. . . such feelings. In the second place, as an honest man, I must say that. . . happiness is based on mutuality. . . that is, when both parties. ., when they love equally.”

Ogneff suddenly felt ashamed of his stammering