After a few steps he tried to master his emotion and utter that short sentence: "Ivanitza, I love you."
Then something seemed to grip his throat and choke him; it was not possible for him to bring those words out. Besides, he thought they would sound so unmeaning and vapid, so far from expressing the hunger of his heart; so he said nothing.
Meanwhile the bell kept doling out its chimes slowly, one by one, and as he asked himself whether it were possible to live without this girl, whom he now loved so dearly, the harmony of the bell chimed in with his thoughts, and said to him: "Ay, nay; ay, nay."
All at once, feeling that this girl must think him a fool if he kept silent, that he must say something, no matter what it was, and happening to see a lonely gull flying away towards the sea, he said, in a faltering tone:
"Ivanika, do you like coots?"
It was the only thing that came into his mind. She looked up at him with a roguish twinkle in her eyes.
"Do you mean cooked coots or live coots?"
Milenko looked for a while rather puzzled, as if bewildered by the question. Then, taking the tips of the girl's fingers: "I was not thinking of them, either alive or cooked."
Ivanika quietly drew her hand away.
"What were you thinking of, then?" she said.