when she looked out: she saw Smirnin, the veterinary surgeon,
grey-headed, and dressed as a civilian. She suddenly remembered
everything. She could not help crying and letting her head fall on
his breast without uttering a word, and in the violence of her
feeling she did not notice how they both walked into the house and
sat down to tea.

"My dear Vladimir Platonitch! What fate has brought you?" she
muttered, trembling with joy.

"I want to settle here for good, Olga Semyonovna," he told her. "I
have resigned my post, and have come to settle down and try my luck
on my own account. Besides, it's time for my boy to go to school.
He's a big boy. I am reconciled with my wife, you know."

"Where is she?' asked Olenka.

"She's at the hotel with the boy, and I'm looking for lodgings."

"Good gracious, my dear soul! Lodgings? Why not have my house? Why
shouldn't that suit you? Why, my goodness, I wouldn't take any
rent!" cried Olenka in a flutter, beginning to cry again. "You live
here, and the lodge will do nicely for me. Oh dear! how glad I am!"

Next day the roof was painted and the walls were whitewashed, and
Olenka, with her arms akimbo walked about the yard giving directions.
Her face was beaming with her old smile, and she was brisk and alert
as though she had waked from a long sleep. The veterinary's wife
arrived--a thin, plain lady, with short hair and a peevish
expression. With her was her little Sasha, a boy of ten, small for