CHAPTER V


Piotr and Elisaveta descended towards the boat landing. Two
rowing-boats seemed to rock on the water, though there was no breeze
and the water was smooth like a mirror. A little farther, behind the
bushes, the canvas roof of the bath-house stood revealed. Elena,
Misha, and Miss Harrison were already there. They were sitting on a
bench halfway down the slope, where the path to the landing was
broken. The view from here, showing the bend of the river, was very
restful. The water was growing darker, heavier, gradually assuming a
leadlike dullness.

Misha and Elena, flushed with running, could not suppress their
smiles. The Englishwoman looked calmly at the river, and nothing
shocked her in the evening landscape and in the peaceful water. But
now two persons came who brought with them their poignant unrest,
their uneasiness, their confusion--and again an endless wrangle began.

They left this bench, from which one could look into such a great
distance and see nothing but calm and peace everywhere. They descended
below to the very bank. Even at this close range the water was still
and smooth, and the agitated words of the restless people did not
cause the broad sheet to stir. Misha picked up thin, flat stones and
threw them underhand into the distance so that, touching the water,
they skipped repeatedly on the surface. He did this habitually
whenever the wrangling distressed him. His hands trembled, the little
stones ricochetted badly sometimes; this annoyed him, but he tried to
hide his annoyance and to look cheerful.