"Not like a crow," said he then to Pan Gideon, "but like a horseless noble, at which condition it is granted you, my benefactor, to laugh, but it may be unhealthy for another to do so." "Oho! oho! oho!" repeated the Bukoyemskis, urging toward him their horses. Their faces grew dark in one moment, and their mustaches quivered. Again Tachevski measured them, and raised his head higher. But Pan Gideon spoke with a voice as severe and commanding as if he had power over all of them. "No quarrels here, I beg! This is Pan Tachevski," said he after a while, with more mildness, turning to the cavaliers, "and this is Pan Tsyprianovitch, and each of the other four nobles is a Pan Bukoyemski, to whom I may say we owe our lives, for wolves met us yesterday. These gentlemen came to our aid unexpectedly, and God knows in season." "In season," repeated Panna Anulka, with emphasis, pouting a little, and looking at Pan Stanislav bewitchingly. Tachevski's cheeks flushed, but on his face there appeared as it were humiliation, his eyes became mist-covered, and, with immense sadness in his accents, he said,-- "In season, for they were in company, and happy because on good horses, but wolf teeth at that time were cutting old Voloshyn, and my last friend had vanished. But--" even here he looked with greater good-will at the Bukoyemskis--"may your hands be sacred, for ye have done that which with my whole soul I wished to do, but God did not let me." Panna Anulka seemed changeable, like all women, perhaps too she was sorry for Tachevski, since her eyes became pleasant and twinkling, her lids opened and closed very quickly, and she asked with a different voice altogether,-- "Old Voloshyn? My God, I loved him so much and he knew me. My God!" Tachevski looked at her straightway with thankfulness. "He knew you, gracious lady, he knew you." "Grieve not, Pan Yatsek, grieve not so cruelly." "I grieved before this, but on horseback. I shall grieve now on foot. God reward you, however, for the kind words." "But mount now the mouse-colored horse," said Pan Gideon. "The page will ride the off leader, or sit behind the carriage. There is an extra burka at the saddle, put it on, for thou hast been freezing all night, and the cold is increasing." "No," said Tachevski, "I am warm. I left my shuba behind, since I felt no need of it." "Well, for the road!" They started. Yatsek Tachevski taking his place near the left carriage window, Stanislav Tsyprianovitch at the right, so the young lady sitting in front might without turning her head look freely at the one and the other. But the Bukoyemskis were not glad to see Yatsek. They were angry that he had taken a place at the side of the carriage, so, bringing their horses together till their heads almost touched, they talked with one another and counselled,-- "He looked at us insolently," said Mateush. "As God is in heaven he wants to insult us." "Just now he turned his horse's tail to us. What do ye say to that?"