Maryanka raised herself, and after thinking a moment, smiled.

‘Do you know what he once told me: the lodger I mean?’ she said, biting a bit of grass. ‘He said, “I’d like to be Lukashka the Cossack, or your brother Lazutka — .” What do you think he meant?’

‘Oh, just chattering what came into his head,’ answered Ustenka. ‘What does mine not say! Just as if he was possessed!’

Maryanka dropped her hand on her folded beshmet, threw her arm over Ustenka’s shoulder, and shut her eyes.

‘He wanted to come and work in the vineyard to-day: father invited him,’ she said, and after a short silence she fell asleep.