AT NIKOLSKOE KATYA AND ARKADY WERE SITTING IN THE GARDEN on a turf seat in the shade of a tall ash tree; Fifi had placed herself on the ground near them, giving her long body that graceful curve which is known among sportsmen as the "hare's bend." Both Arkady and Katya were silent; he held in his hands a half-open book, while she was picking out of a basket some remaining crumbs of white bread and throwing them to the small family of sparrows which with their peculiar cowardly impudence were chirping and hopping around right up to her feet. A faint breeze, stirring the ash leaves, kept gently moving pale gold patches of sunlight up and down across the shady path and over Fifi's back; an unbroken shadow fell on Arkady and Katya; only from time to time a bright streak gleamed in her hair. Both were silent, but the way in which they were silent and sitting together indicated a certain confidential friendliness; each of them seemed not to be thinking of the other, while secretly rejoicing at each other's presence. Their faces, too, had changed since we saw them last; Arkady seemed more composed and Katya brighter and more self-confident.
"Don't you think," began Arkady, "that the ash has been very well named in Russian Yasen; not a single other tree is so light and translucently clear (yasno) against the sky."
Katya raised her eyes upwards and murmured, "Yes," and Arkady thought, "Well, she doesn't reproach me for talking poetically."
"I don't care for Heine," said Katya, glancing at the book which Arkady held in his hands, "either when he laughs or when he weeps. I like him when he is thoughtful and sad."
"And I like him when he laughs," remarked Arkady.
"Those are the relics of your old satirical tendency." ("Relics," thought Arkady. "If Bazarov could have heard that!") "Wait a bit; we shall transform you.
"Who will transform me? You?"
"Who? My sister, Porfiry Platonovich, whom you've stopped quarreling with, my aunt, whom you escorted to church the day before yesterday."
"Well, I couldn't refuse. But, as for Anna Sergeyevna, you remember she agreed with Evgeny in a great many things."
"My sister was under his influence then, just as you were."
"As I was! Have you noticed that I've already shaken off his influence?"
Katya remained silent.
"I know," continued Arkady, "you never liked him."
"I'm unable to judge him."
"Do you know, Katerina Sergeyevna, every time I hear that answer, I don't believe it . . . there is no one beyond the capacity of judgment of any of us! That is just a pretext for getting out of it."
"Well, I'll tell you then, he is . . . not because I don't like him, but I feel he is quite alien to me, and I am alien to him . . . and you too are alien to him."
"Why is that?"
"How can I tell you? He's a wild beast, while we are both domestic animals."
"And am I a domestic animal?"
Katya nodded her head.
Arkady scratched his ear. "Listen, Katerina Sergeyevna, surely that is in the nature of an insult."
"Why, would you rather be wild?"
"Not wild, but powerful, energetic."
"It's no good wishing to be that . . . your friend, you see, doesn't wish for it, but he has it."
"Hm! So you suppose he had a great influence on Anna Sergeyevna?"
"Yes. But no one can keep the upper hand of her for long," added Katya in a low voice.
"Why do you think that?"
"She's very proud . . . I didn't mean to say that . . she values her independence very much."
"Who doesn't value it?" asked Arkady, and the thought flashed through his mind: "What is it for?" The same thought occurred to Katya. Young people who are friendly and often together constantly find themselves thinking the same thoughts.
Arkady smiled and, coming a little closer to Katya, he said in a whisper: "Confess, you are a little afraid of her."
"Of whom?"
"Of her," repeated Arkady significantly.
"And how about you?" asked Katya in her turn.
"I am also. Please note I said, I am also."
Katya wagged her finger at him threateningly.
"I wonder at that," she began; "my sister has never felt so friendly towards you as just now; much more than when you first came here."
"Fancy that!"
"And you haven't noticed it? Aren't you glad about it?"
Arkady became thoughtful.
"How have I succeeded in winning Anna Sergeyevna's favor? Could it be because I brought her your mother's letters?"
"Both for that and for other reasons which I won't tell you."
"Why?"
"I shan't say."
"Oh, I know, you're very obstinate."
"Yes, I am."
"And observant."