Sanine slowly followed, breathing to the full the soft, honey-sweet air of the garden.
He went close up to the other hospice, so that the light from the window as he stood under it fell full upon his calm, pensive face, and illuminated large, heavy pears hanging on the dark orchard trees. By standing on tip-toe Sanine was able to pluck one, and, just as he did so he caught sight of Sina at the window.
He saw her in profile, clad in her night-dress. The light on her soft, round shoulders gave them a lustre as of satin. She was lost in her thoughts, that seemingly made her joyous yet ashamed, for her eyelids quivered, and on her lips there was a smile. To Sanine it was like the ecstatic smile of a maiden ripe and ready for a long, entrancing kiss. Riveted to the spot, he stood there and gazed.
She was musing on all that had just happened, and her experiences, if they had caused delight, had yet provoked shame. “Good heavens!” thought she, “am I really so depraved?” Then for the hundredth time she blissfully recalled the rapture that was hers as she first lay in Yourii’s arms. “My darling! My darling!” she murmured, and again Sanine watched her eyelids tremble, and her smiling lips. Of the subsequent scene, distressful in its unbridled passion, she preferred not to think, instinctively aware that the memory of it would only bring disenchantment.
“Who is there?” asked Sina, looking up. Sanine plainly saw her white, soft neck.
“Here’s a letter for you,” cried the boy outside.
Sina rose and opened the door. Splashed with wet mud to the knees, the boy entered, and snatching his cap from his head, said:
“Sinotschka,” wrote Dubova, “if possible, do come back to town this evening. The Inspector of Schools has arrived, and will visit our school to-morrow morning. It won’t look well if you are not there.”
“Olga has sent for me. The school-inspector has come,” replied Sina, pensively.
“She wished me to tell you to come back without fail,” he said.
“The moon is up,” said the boy. “It’s quite light out-of-doors.”
“I shall have to go,” said Sina, still hesitating.
“Yes, yes, go, my child. Otherwise there might be trouble.”
“Very well, then, I’ll go,” said Sina, nodding her head resolutely.
She dressed quickly, put on her hat and took leave of her aunt.