“You are acting just as if you had come on a visit,” Maria Petrovna remarked, and, taking the butter with a pleasant smile, said: “Merci!”
“Well, good night, my Marguerite!” said Iván Mikhailovich, approaching his wife and once more gazing attentively into her eyes; then he kissed her hand and cheek.
“Good night, my Faust!” jokingly replied Xenia Pavlovna, kissing her husband on the lips.
Then Iván Mikhailovich pressed Maria Petrovna’s hand and went into the bedroom.
The blue hanging-lamp flooded the chamber with a soft, tender, soothing, bluish light, and it was so peaceful and cozy. Iván Mikhailovich undressed, and, taking off his boots, still continued to sing from “Faust” in a tender falsetto:
“’Tis life alone to be near thee,
Thine only, all thine own!”
THE DUEL
BY NIKOLAI DMITRIEVITCH TELESHOV
Teleshov was born in 1867 and studied at the Moscow Academy of Applied Sciences. He started on his literary career in 1884 and met with almost immediate recognition.