Konstantin rubbed his eyes, looked at the fire and laughed.

“You love her, then, . . .” said Panteley.

“She is so fine and splendid,” Konstantin repeated, not hearing him; “such a housewife, clever and sensible.  You wouldn’t find another like her among simple folk in the whole province.  She has gone away. . . .  But she is missing me, I kno-ow!  I know the little magpie.  She said she would be back to-morrow by dinner-time. . . .  And just think how queer!” Konstantin almost shouted, speaking a note higher and shifting his position.  “Now she loves me and is sad without me, and yet she would not marry me.”

“But eat,” said Kiruha.

“She would not marry me,” Konstantin went on, not heeding him.  “I have been struggling with her for three years!  I saw her at the Kalatchik fair; I fell madly in love with her, was ready to hang myself. . . .  I live at Rovno, she at Demidovo, more than twenty miles apart, and there was nothing I could do.  I sent match-makers to her, and all she said was:  ‘I won’t!’ Ah, the magpie!  I sent her one thing and another, earrings and cakes, and twenty pounds of honey—­but still she said:  ‘I won’t!’ And there it was.  If you come to think of it, I was not a match for her!  She was young and lovely, full of fire, while I am old:  I shall soon be thirty, and a regular beauty, too; a fine beard like a goat’s, a clear complexion all covered with pimples—­how could I be compared with her!  The only thing to be said is that we are well off, but then the Vahramenkys are well off, too.  They’ve six oxen, and they keep a couple of labourers.  I was in love, friends, as though I were plague-stricken.  I couldn’t sleep or eat; my brain was full of thoughts, and in such a maze, Lord preserve us!  I longed to see her, and she was in Demidovo.  What do you think?  God be my witness, I am not lying, three times a week I walked over there on foot just to have a look at her.  I gave up my work!  I was so frantic that I even wanted to get taken on as a labourer in Demidovo, so as to be near her.  I was in misery!  My mother called in a witch a dozen times; my father tried thrashing me.  For three years I was in this torment, and then I made up my mind.  ‘Damn my soul!’ I said.  ’I will go to the town and be a cabman. . . .  It seems it is fated not to be.’  At Easter I went to Demidovo to have a last look at her. . . .”

Konstantin threw back his head and went off into a mirthful tinkling laugh, as though he had just taken someone in very cleverly.

“I saw her by the river with the lads,” he went on.  “I was overcome with anger. . . .  I called her aside and maybe for a full hour I said all manner of things to her.  She fell in love with me!  For three years she did not like me! she fell in love with me for what I said to her. . . .”

“What did you say to her?” asked Dymov.

“What did I say?  I don’t remember. . .  How could one remember?  My words flowed at the time like water from a tap, without stopping to take breath.  Ta-ta-ta!  And now I can’t utter a word. . . .  Well, so she married me. . . .  She’s gone now to her mother’s, the magpie, and while she is away here I wander over the steppe.  I can’t stay at home.  It’s more than I can do!”