were no part of his business. He considered that his father was
incapable of understanding the simplest things, being old and void of
intelligence. Unconsciously he blamed him for his old age and his
antiquated ideas: they enraged him. The topics touched upon by
Riasantzeff did not interest him. He scarcely listened, but steadily
watched his father with black, glittering eyes. Just at supper-time
came Novikoff, Ivanoff and Semenoff.

Semenoff was a consumptive student who for some months past had lived
in the town, where he gave lessons. He was thin, ugly, and looked very
delicate. Upon his face, which was prematurely aged, lay the fleeting
shadow of approaching death. Ivanoff was a schoolmaster, a long-haired,
broad-shouldered, ungainly man. They had been walking on the boulevard,
and hearing of Yourii's arrival had come to salute him. With their
coming things grew more cheerful. There was laughter and joking, and at
supper much was drunk. Ivanoff distinguished himself in this respect.
During the few days that followed his unfortunate proposal to Lida,
Novikoff had become somewhat calmer. That Lida had refused him might
have been accidental, he thought; it was his fault, indeed, as he ought
to have prepared her for such an avowal. Nevertheless it was painful to
him to visit the Sanines. Therefore he endeavoured to meet Lida
elsewhere, either in the street, or at the house of a mutual friend.
She, for her part, pitied him, and, in a way, blamed herself which
caused her to treat him with exaggerated cordiality, so that Novikoff
once more began to hope.

"What do you say to this?" he asked, just as they were all going,
"Let's arrange a picnic at the convent, shall we?"

The convent, situated on a hill at no great distance from the town, was