He could never understand how he entered and how the door was shut
behind him. Two candles burned in the room and a lamp glowed before
the images: beneath the lamp stood a tall table with steps to kneel
upon during prayer, after the Catholic fashion. But his eye did not
seek this. He turned to the other side and perceived a woman, who
appeared to have been frozen or turned to stone in the midst of some
quick movement. It seemed as though her whole body had sought to
spring towards him, and had suddenly paused. And he stood in like
manner amazed before her. Not thus had he pictured to himself that he
should find her. This was not the same being he had formerly known;
nothing about her resembled her former self; but she was twice as
beautiful, twice as enchanting, now than she had been then. Then there
had been something unfinished, incomplete, about her; now here was a
production to which the artist had given the finishing stroke of his
brush. That was a charming, giddy girl; this was a woman in the full
development of her charms. As she raised her eyes, they were full of
feeling, not of mere hints of feeling. The tears were not yet dry in
them, and framed them in a shining dew which penetrated the very soul.
Her bosom, neck, and arms were moulded in the proportions which mark
fully developed loveliness. Her hair, which had in former days waved
in light ringlets about her face, had become a heavy, luxuriant mass,
a part of which was caught up, while part fell in long, slender curls
upon her arms and breast. It seemed as though her every feature had
changed. In vain did he seek to discover in them a single one of those
which were engraved in his memory--a single one. Even her great pallor
did not lessen her wonderful beauty; on the contrary, it conferred
upon it an irresistible, inexpressible charm. Andrii felt in his heart
a noble timidity, and stood motionless before her. She, too, seemed
surprised at the appearance of the Cossack, as he stood before her in