XXII + 

Glasha appeared at the garden gate. She glanced cheerfully along both sides of the road. Walking more slowly she approached Elena Kirillovna deferentially. + 

Glasha looked quite ordinary now, stiff-mannered and stupid. There was nothing to envy in her. Her dress too was quite commonplace. Her braids were arranged upon her head quite like a young lady’s, and held fast by three combs of transparent bone. Her blouse was light-coloured⁠—pink stripes and lavender flowers on a ground of white⁠—its short sleeves reached the elbows. She wore a neat blue skirt and a white apron. + 

Elena Kirillovna asked: + 

“Well, what is it, Glashenka? Is Sonyushka up yet?” + 

Glasha replied in a respectful voice: + 

“Sofia Alexandrovna is getting up. She wants me to ask you if we shall lay the table on the terrace?” + 

“Yes, yes, let it be on the terrace. And how is Natashenka?” asked Elena Kirillovna, looking anxiously at Glasha. + 

“The young lady is asleep,” answered Glasha. “Today again, quite early, she went out for a walk straight from bed, without so much as a bite of something. Her skirt’s wet with dew. She might have caught a cold. And now she sleeps. If you’d but talk to her.” + 

Elena Kirillovna said irresolutely: + 

“Very well. I had better be going. All right, Glasha.” + 

Glasha goes. Elena Kirillovna rises slowly from the bench, as though she regretted moving from the spot where she saw Borya in a half-dream. Slowly she walks toward the house. + 

Having reached the gate she pauses, and again looks for some moments down the road, in the direction of the station. + 

A cart rumbles by noisily over the travelled road. The muzhik barely holds the reins and rocks from side to side sleepily. The harnessed horse swings its tail and its head. A white-haired urchin, in broad blue breeches, lets his brown feet hang over the edge of the cart and stares with his bright hazel eyes at a gaunt, evil-looking dog which runs after, barking hoarsely. + 

Elena Kirillovna gives a sigh⁠—there is as yet no Borya⁠—and enters the garden. + 

Glasha’s light-coloured blouse glimmers on the terrace. There is a rattle of dishes. The grumbling chatter of Borya’s old nurse is also audible. + 