Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VII).djvu/18

Rh 'This insult must be washed out in blood, in blood'

'I've found the road! ' cried the coachman, making his appearance at the right front wheel. 'I made a little mistake, kept too much to the left it 's no matter now! We'll be there in no time; there 's not a mile before us. Be pleased to sit still!'

He clambered on to the box, took the reins from Markelov, turned the shaft horse's head. The coach, after two violent jolts, rolled along more easily and evenly, the darkness seemed to part and to lift, there was a smell of smoke, in front rose a sort of hillock. Then a light twinkled and vanished. Another glimmered. A dog barked.

'Our huts,' said the coachman; 'ah, get along, my pretty pussies!'

The lights came more and more often to meet them.

'After that insult,' Nezhdanov began at last, 'you will readily understand, Sergei Mihalovitch, that I cannot spend a night under your roof; I am therefore, unpleasant as it is to me, forced to ask you to lend me your coach, when you reach home, so that I may return to the town; to-morrow I will find means of getting home; and then you shall receive from me the communication you doubtless expect.'