I looked her straight in the eyes and inquired almost sharply,-- "What dost thou mean by that?" Hania was confused and began to explain something indistinctly. Selim came to her aid,-- "But that is very natural. Whoever is in love grows thin." I looked now at Hania, now at Selim, and replied slowly, putting a sharp accent on each syllable,-- "I do not see that ye are growing thin, either thou or Hania." A scarlet flush covered the faces of both. A moment of very awkward silence followed. I myself was uncertain whether I had not gone too far, but fortunately my father had not heard what was said. The priest took it as the usual chaffing of young people. "Oh, that is a wasp with a sting!" cried he, taking snuff. "He has given it to you. See now, don't tackle him." O Lord, how little that triumph comforted me, and how gladly I would have transferred it to Selim! After dinner, in passing through the drawing-room, I looked in the glass. Really, I looked like Piotrovin.[3] It was blue under my eyes; my face was sunk. It seemed to me that I had grown wonderfully ugly, but that was all one to me then. I went to find Evunia. Both my little sisters had dined earlier than we, and were in the garden, where a gymnasium for children had been fixed. Evunia was sitting carelessly on a wooden platform hung by four cords to the crossbeam of a swing. While sitting there, she was talking to herself, shaking the locks of her golden head from time to time and swinging her feet. When she saw me she laughed and stretched forth her little hands. I took her in my arms and went down the alley with her. Then I sat on a bench, and, putting Evunia before me, asked,-- [3] A man raised from the dead by Saint Stanislav. "What has Evunia been doing to-day?" "Evunia went to walk with her husband and Hania," answered the little girl, boastingly. Evunia called Selim her husband. "And was Evunia polite?" "She was." "Ah, that is well, for polite children always listen to what older people say, and remember that they have something to learn. But does Evunia remember what Selim said to Hania?" "I have forgotten." "Ei, maybe Evunia remembers a little?" "I have forgotten." "Thou art not polite! Let Evunia remember right off, or I shall not love Evunia." The little girl began to rub one eye with her fist; and with the other, which was full of tears, she looked at me from under her brow, and frowning, as if to cry, her lips already quivering and in the form of a horseshoe, she said,-- "I have forgotten."