“What does it mean, sir?” answered she in a sing-song voice.  “They say some one—­Heaven knows who it was—­tried to drown himself, and she saw him.  That frightened her, but she managed to get home:  no one noticed anything strange, and she sat down there on the threshold, and since then she’s sat there like an image, whether one speaks to her or not.  It’s as if she had no tongue.”

“Good-bye! good-bye!” repeated Latkin, still with the same gestures.

I walked to Raissa and stood just before her.  “Raissa,” I cried, “what is the matter?”

She made no answer:  it was as if she had not heard me.  Her face was no paler, nor in any way different, except that it had a stony look and an expression of slight fatigue.

“She is cross too,” Latkin whispered to me.

I took Raissa by the hand.  “David is alive.”  I cried louder than before—­“alive and unhurt.  David is alive:  do you understand?  They have taken him out of the water, he is now at home, and he has sent word that he will come to-morrow to see you.  He is alive.”

Raissa turned her eyes toward me slowly, as if it hurt her:  she winked them two or three times, opened them wider:  then she turned her head to one side, flushed suddenly, parted her lips, drew a full breath, frowned as if from pain and with great effort, bringing out the words, “Da—­Dav—­is—­al—­alive,” and rose hastily from the steps and rushed away.

“Where are you going?” I inquired.

But, laughing gently, she flew over the ground.  I of course hastened after her, while behind us was a sound of voices—­the aged one that of Latkin, and the childish cry that of the deaf mute.  Raissa went straight to our house.

“What a day this has been!” I thought to myself as I tried to keep up with the black dress that flew along in front of me.

Raissa ran past Wassily, my aunt, and even Trankwilhtatin, into the room in which David was lying, and threw herself on his breast.  “Oh, oh, David!” came her voice forth from under her loosened hair.  And raising his arms he embraced her and let his head rest on her shoulder.

“Forgive me, dear,” I heard him say, and both nearly died with joy.

“But why did you go home, Raissa?  Why didn’t you wait?” I asked.  She still did not raise her head.  “You might have seen that he was saved.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know:  don’t ask me.  I don’t know:  I can’t recall how I got home.  I only remember I was looking into the air, and a blow hit me; but that was—­”

“A blow?” repeated David, and we all three burst out laughing, for we were very happy.

“But what’s going on here?” roared a threatening voice behind us, the voice of my father.  He was standing in the doorway.  “Will these monkey-tricks come to an end or not?  Where are we living?  In the Russian empire or in the French republic?” He came into the room.  “Let any one who is turbulent and vicious begone to France.—­And how do you dare to enter here?” he asked of Raissa, who, rising a little and turning her face toward him, was evidently alarmed, although she continued to smile gently.  “The daughter of my sworn enemy!  How have you dared?  And to embrace him too!  Away with you at once, or—­”