"Who is he?" inquired Yourii.
"Oh! he's a young student."
"Very well; and Ludmilla Nicolaievna will invite Karsavina and Olga
Ivanovna."
"Who are they?" asked Yourii once more.
Lialia laughed. "You will see!" she said, kissing the tips of her
fingers and looking very mysterious.
"Aha!" said Yourii, smiling. "Well, we shall see what we shall see!"
After some hesitation, Novikoff with an air of indifference, remarked: "We might ask the Sanines too."
"Oh! we must have Lida," cried Lialia, not because she particularly
liked the girl, but because she knew of Novikoff's passion, and wished
to please him. She was so happy herself in her own love, that she
wanted all those about her to be happy also.
"Then we shall have to invite the officers, too," observed Ivanoff,
maliciously.
"What does that matter? Let us do so. The more the merrier!"
They all stood at the front door, in the moonlight.
"What a lovely night!" exclaimed Lialia, as unconsciously she drew
closer to her lover. She did not wish him to go yet. Riasantzeff with
his elbow pressed her warm, round arm.
"Yes, it's a wonderful night!" he replied, giving to these simple words
a meaning that they two alone could seize.
"Oh! you, and your night!" muttered Ivanoff in his deep bass. "I'm
sleepy, so good-night, sirs!"
And he slouched off, along the street, swinging his arms like the sails
of a windmill.
Novikoff and Semenoff went next, and Riasantzeff was a long while
saying good-bye to Lialia, pretending to talk about the picnic.
"Now, we must all go to bye-bye," said Lialia, laughingly, when he had
taken his leave. Then she sighed, being loth to leave the moonlight,
the soft night air, and all for which her youth and beauty longed.
Yourii remembered that his father had not yet retired to rest, and
feared that, if they met, a painful and useless discussion would be
inevitable.
"No!" he replied, his eyes fixed on the faint blue mist about the
river, "No! I don't want to go to sleep. I shall go out for a while."
"As you like," said Lialia, in her sweet, gentle voice. Stretching
herself, she half closed her eyes like a cat, smiled at the moonlight,
and went in. For a few minutes Yourii stood there, watching the dark
shadows of the houses and the trees; then he went in the same direction
that Semenoff had taken.