“But I can't imagine such a life for you without a shudder! At night—he; in the day—I.… No, that is impossible! Olia, I love you so much at the present moment that … I am madly jealous.… I never suspected I had the capacity for such feelings.”
But what imprudence! I had my arm round her waist, and she was stroking my hand tenderly at the time when at any moment one could expect somebody would be passing down the avenue and might see us.
“Come,” I said, removing my arm. “Put on your cloak and let us be off!”
“How quickly you want to do things,” she murmured in a tearful voice. “You hurry as if to a fire. And God only knows what you have invented! To run away immediately after the marriage! What will people say?”
And Olenka shrugged her shoulders. Her face wore such a look of perplexity, astonishment and incomprehension that I only waved my hand and postponed settling her “life questions” to another moment. Besides, there was no time to continue our conversation: we were going up the stone stairs that led to the terrace and heard the sound of voices. At the dining-room door Olia arranged her hair, saw that her dress was in order, and went into the room. No signs of confusion could be noticed on he face. She entered the room much more boldly than I had expected.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have brought back the fugitive,” I said as I sat down in my place. “I found her with difficulty.… I'm quite tired out by this search. I went into the garden, I looked around, and there she was walking about in the avenue.… ‘Why are you here?’ I asked her. ‘Just so,’ she answered. ‘It's so stuffy.’ ”
Olia looked at me, at the guests, at her husband, and began to laugh. Something amused her, and she became gay. I read on her face the wish to share with all that crowd of diners the sudden happiness that she had experienced; and not being able to give expression to it in words, she poured it out in her laughter.
“What a funny person I am!” she said. “I am laughing, and I don't know why I am laughing.… Count, laugh!”
“Bitter,” cried Kalinin.
Urbenin coughed and looked inquiringly at Olia.