I love!' and nothing more could I get out of her.

"Vasya came back on the Saturday before Trinity, early in the morning.
From my fence I could see everything; he ran into the house, and came
back a minute later with Kuzka in his arms, and he was laughing and
crying all at once; he was kissing Kuzka and looking up at the hay-loft,
and hadn't the heart to put the child down, and yet he was longing to go
to his pigeons. He was always a soft sort of chap--sentimental. That day
passed off very well, all quiet and proper. They had begun ringing
the church bells for the evening service, when the thought struck me:
'To-morrow's Trinity Sunday; how is it they are not decking the gates
and the fence with green? Something's wrong,' I thought. I went over to
them. I peeped in, and there he was, sitting on the floor in the middle
of the room, his eyes staring like a drunken man's, the tears streaming
down his cheeks and his hands shaking; he was pulling cracknels,
necklaces, gingerbread nuts, and all sorts of little presents out of
his bundle and flinging them on the floor. Kuzka--he was three years
old--was crawling on the floor, munching the gingerbreads, while
Mashenka stood by the stove, white and shivering all over, muttering:
'I'm not your wife; I can't live with you,' and all sorts of
foolishness. I bowed down at Vasya's feet, and said: 'We have sinned
against you, Vassily Maximitch; forgive us, for Christ's sake!' Then I
got up and spoke to Mashenka: 'You, Marya Semyonovna, ought now to wash
Vassily Maximitch's feet and drink the water. Do you be an obedient
wife to him, and pray to God for me, that He in His mercy may forgive
my transgression.' It came to me like an inspiration from an angel of
Heaven; I gave her solemn counsel and spoke with such feeling that
my own tears flowed too. And so two days later Vasya comes to me:
'Matyusha,' says he, 'I forgive you and my wife; God have mercy on you!
She was a soldier's wife, a young thing all alone; it was hard for