easy motions as well as in his slow, proud walk, a consciousness
of power was evident--a firm confidence in himself. He was liked
by women and did not avoid them.

Ere six months had passed after the death of his wife, he courted
the daughter of an Ural Cossack. The father of the bride,
notwithstanding that Ignat was known even in Ural as a "pranky"
man, gave him his daughter in marriage, and toward autumn Ignat
Gordyeeff came home with a young Cossack-wife. Her name was
Natalya. Tall, well-built, with large blue eyes and with a long
chestnut braid, she was a worthy match for the handsome Ignat. He
was happy and proud of his wife and loved her with the passionate
love of a healthy man, but he soon began to contemplate her
thoughtfully, with a vigilant eye.

Seldom did a smile cross the oval, demure face of his wife--she
was always thinking of something foreign to life, and in her calm
blue eyes something dark and misanthropic was flashing at times.
Whenever she was free from household duties she seated herself in
the most spacious room by the window, and sat there silently for
two or three hours. Her face was turned toward the street, but
the look of her eyes was so indifferent to everything that lived
and moved there beyond the window, and at the same time it was so
fixedly deep, as though she were looking into her very soul. And
her walk, too, was queer. Natalya moved about the spacious room
slowly and carefully, as if something invisible restrained the
freedom of her movements. Their house was filled with heavy and
coarsely boastful luxury; everything there was resplendent,
screaming of the proprietor's wealth, but the Cossack-wife walked
past the costly furniture and the silverware in a shy and