CHAPTER XIV
Elisaveta dressed herself up as a boy. She loved to do this and she did it quite often; so tedious is the monotony of our lives that even a change of dress furnishes a diversion!
Elisaveta put on a white sailor-jacket with a blue collar, and blue knee-breeches which revealed the beauty and grace of her sunburnt lower limbs; she put on a cap, took a fishing-rod and went to the river. Elisaveta looked like a rather tall stripling of fourteen in this dress.
It was quiet and bright on the river’s bank. Elisaveta sat down on a stone at the edge, lowered her feet into the water, and watched the float. A rowing-boat appeared. Elisaveta looked intently and saw that it contained Stchemilov. The latter called out:
“I say, my lad, if you belong here, can you tell me if....”
Then he paused because Elisaveta was laughing.
“Well, who would have thought it—comrade Elisaveta?”
“You didn’t recognize me, comrade?” asked Elisaveta with a merry laugh, as she approached the landing-place where Stchemilov was already fastening his boat.
“I must confess that I didn’t know you at once,” he replied, as he pressed her hand warmly. “I have come for you. To-night we are to hold our mass meeting.”
“Is it really to-night?” asked Elisaveta.