"I've just seen a little squirrel. It was sitting on a pine. Then I
gave a shout--you should have seen it run!"

The others also began to talk and to ask questions. The singers ended
their song and scattered in all directions to play. The golden-haired
instructress went up to the sisters and asked:

"Have you come from town? Are you pleased with what you have seen
here?"

"Yes, it's splendid here," said Elisaveta. "Our place adjoins this. We
are the Rameyevs. I am Elisaveta. And this is my sister Elena."

The golden-haired girl suddenly blushed as if she felt ashamed that
the wealthy young women were looking at her naked shoulders and at her
legs naked to the knee. But seeing that they too were barefoot and
wore short skirts, she quickly recovered and smiled at them.

"My name is Nadezhda Vestchezerova," she said.

She looked attentively at the sisters. Elisaveta thought that she had
heard the name somewhere in town--perhaps a tale in connexion with it,
she could not remember exactly what. For some reason she did not
mention this to Nadezhda. Perhaps it was a tragic history.

This fear of talking about the past occasionally came upon Elisaveta.
Who knows what sorrow is hid behind a bright smile, and from what
darkness has sprung the blossoming which gives sudden joy to a glance,
elusively beautiful and born of unhappy worldly experience?