“Von Rabbek will hear at once from the peasants that we have come and will send for us,” thought Ryabovitch, as he went into the hut, unable to understand why a comrade was lighting a candle and why the orderlies were hurriedly setting samovars. . . .

A painful uneasiness took possession of him.  He lay down, then got up and looked out of the window to see whether the messenger were coming.  But there was no sign of him.

He lay down again, but half an hour later he got up, and, unable to restrain his uneasiness, went into the street and strode towards the church.  It was dark and deserted in the square near the church . . . .  Three soldiers were standing silent in a row where the road began to go downhill.  Seeing Ryabovitch, they roused themselves and saluted.  He returned the salute and began to go down the familiar path.

On the further side of the river the whole sky was flooded with crimson:  the moon was rising; two peasant women, talking loudly, were picking cabbage in the kitchen garden; behind the kitchen garden there were some dark huts. . . .  And everything on the near side of the river was just as it had been in May:  the path, the bushes, the willows overhanging the water . . . but there was no sound of the brave nightingale, and no scent of poplar and fresh grass.

Reaching the garden, Ryabovitch looked in at the gate.  The garden was dark and still. . . .  He could see nothing but the white stems of the nearest birch-trees and a little bit of the avenue; all the rest melted together into a dark blur.  Ryabovitch looked and listened eagerly, but after waiting for a quarter of an hour without hearing a sound or catching a glimpse of a light, he trudged back. . . .

He went down to the river.  The General’s bath-house and the bath-sheets on the rail of the little bridge showed white before him. . . .  He went on to the bridge, stood a little, and, quite unnecessarily, touched the sheets.  They felt rough and cold.  He looked down at the water. . . .  The river ran rapidly and with a faintly audible gurgle round the piles of the bath-house.  The red moon was reflected near the left bank; little ripples ran over the reflection, stretching it out, breaking it into bits, and seemed trying to carry it away.

“How stupid, how stupid!” thought Ryabovitch, looking at the running water.  “How unintelligent it all is!”

Now that he expected nothing, the incident of the kiss, his impatience, his vague hopes and disappointment, presented themselves in a clear light.  It no longer seemed to him strange that he had not seen the General’s messenger, and that he would never see the girl who had accidentally kissed him instead of some one else; on the contrary, it would have been strange if he had seen her. . . .

The water was running, he knew not where or why, just as it did in May.  In May it had flowed into the great river, from the great river into the sea; then it had risen in vapour, turned into rain, and perhaps the very same water was running now before Ryabovitch’s eyes again. . . .  What for?  Why?