row as quickly as possible to the other end of the lake. But before
the boat reached the bank, Uvar Ivanovitch once more succeeded in
surprising his friends; having noticed that in one part of the wood
the echo repeated every sound with peculiar distinctness, he suddenly
began to call like a quail. At first every one was startled, but they
listened directly with real pleasure, especially as Uvar Ivanovitch
imitated the quail's cry with great correctness. Spurred on by this,
he tried mewing like a cat; but this did not go off so well; and after
one more quail-call, he looked at them all and stopped. Shubin threw
himself on him to kiss him; he pushed him off. At that instant the
boat touched the bank, and all the party got out and went on shore.

Meanwhile the coachman, with the groom and the maid, had brought the
baskets out of the coach, and made dinner ready on the grass under the
old lime-trees. They sat down round the outspread tablecloth, and fell
upon the pies and other dainties. They all had excellent appetites,
while Anna Vassilyevna, with unflagging hospitality, kept urging the
guests to eat more, assuring them that nothing was more wholesome than
eating in the open air. She even encouraged Uvar Ivanovitch with such
assurances. 'Don't trouble about me!' he grunted with his mouth
full. 'Such a lovely day is a God-send, indeed!' she repeated
constantly. One would not have known her; she seemed fully twenty
years younger. Bersenyev said as much to her. 'Yes, yes.' she said;
'I could hold my own with any one in my day.' Shubin attached himself
to Zoya, and kept pouring her out wine; she refused it, he pressed
her, and finished by drinking the glass himself, and again pressing
her to take another; he also declared that he longed to lay his head
on her knee; she would on no account permit him 'such a liberty.'
Elena seemed the most serious of the party, but in her heart there was
a wonderful sense of peace, such as she had not known for long. She