“Well, you had better not meet him again now, mate!” said one of the Cossacks who had seen the skiff off, addressing Lukáshka. “Did you hear him asking about you?” Lukáshka raised his head. “My godson?” said Lukáshka, meaning by that word the dead Chéchen. “Your godson won’t rise, but the red one is the godson’s brother!” “Let him thank God that he got off whole himself,” replied Lukáshka. “What are you glad about?” asked Olénin. “Supposing your brother had been killed; would you be glad?” The Cossack looked at Olénin with laughing eyes. He seemed to have understood all that Olénin wished to say to him, but to be above such considerations. “Well, that happens too! Don’t our fellows get killed sometimes?” Chapter XXII The Captain and the head of the village rode away, and Olénin, to please Lukáshka as well as to avoid going back alone through the dark forest, asked the corporal to give Lukáshka leave, and the corporal did so. Olénin thought that Lukáshka wanted to see Maryánka and he was also glad of the companionship of such a pleasant-looking and sociable Cossack. Lukáshka and Maryánka he involuntarily united in his mind, and he found pleasure in thinking about them. “He loves Maryánka,” thought Olénin, “and I could love her,” and a new and powerful emotion of tenderness overcame him as they walked homewards together through the dark forest. Lukáshka too felt happy; something akin to love made itself felt between these two very different young men. Every time they glanced at one another they wanted to laugh. “By which gate do you enter?” asked Olénin. “By the middle one. But I’ll see you as far as the marsh. After that you have nothing to fear.” Olénin laughed. “Do you think I am afraid? Go back, and thank you. I can get on alone.” “It’s all right! What have I to do? And how can you help being afraid? Even we are afraid,” said Lukáshka to set Olénin’s self-esteem at rest, and he laughed too. “Then come in with me. We’ll have a talk and a drink and in the morning you can go back.” “Couldn’t I find a place to spend the night?” laughed Lukáshka. “But the corporal asked me to go back.” “I heard you singing last night, and also saw you.” “Every one...” and Luke swayed his head. “Is it true you are getting married?” asked Olénin. “Mother wants me to marry. But I have not got a horse yet.” “Aren’t you in the regular service?” “Oh dear no! I’ve only just joined, and have not got a horse yet, and don’t know how to get one. That’s why the marriage does not come off.” “And what would a horse cost?” “We were bargaining for one beyond the river the other day and they would not take sixty rubles for it, though it is a Nogáy horse.” “Will you come and be my drabánt?” (A drabánt was a kind of orderly attached to an officer when campaigning.) “I’ll get it arranged and will give you a horse,” said Olénin suddenly. “Really now, I have two and I don’t want both.”