"I leaped over the fence," replied the stranger, sitting down beside the fire without the least ceremony. "The door was bolted and barred; twice, thrice did I knock, but nobody opened to me. I was forced to get in somehow."
"How about the dog?" inquired the woman of the house much perplexed.
"I didn't mind him. I know how to talk to dogs. It is a way I have. There's a plaguey bad tempest roaring outside, the rain is falling in torrents. I could not wait outside any longer."
"But what do you want here?" inquired the woman, looking into the face of the stranger with some timidity.
"That is just what I am going to tell you, my dear! But first give me a glass of water, for I am perishing with thirst."
The woman was involuntarily constrained to obey without more ado.
"And you, my friend, spread out my mantle before the fire!" said the stranger turning towards Ivan, and stripping from his neck and shoulders the heavy mantle which was dripping with rain.
The youth and the woman incontinently obeyed his commands as if they were under a spell.
The mantle was removed, the slim, muscular figure of the stranger was clearly visible, it seemed too soft for a man's. His hands as they grasped the beaker seemed white and delicate.
"That is certainly a woman," murmured the headsman's wife to Ivan, staring suspiciously at the stranger from beneath her thick contracted bushy eyebrows. Then approaching him and looking him full in the face she said: "My Dovey! It seems to me that you are in no good way. Whom do you seek?"