The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy Chapter 13 Page 15

closer to the girl and looking straight in her eyes all the time.

‘And have you come for long?’ asked Maryanka, smiling slightly.

‘Till the morning. Give me some sunflower seeds,’ he said, holding out his hand.

Maryanka now smiled outright and unfastened the neckband of her smock.

‘Don’t take them all,’ she said.

‘Really I felt so dull all the time without you, I swear I did,’ he said in a calm, restrained whisper, helping himself to some seeds out of the bosom of the girl’s smock, and stooping still closer over her he continued with laughing eyes to talk to her in low tones.

‘I won’t come, I tell you,’