Often Orloff would begin a song; he possessed a powerful metallic voice, and did not sing badly. The words of the song poured forth rapidly and plaintively in a ringing recitative from Grischka's whole chest, or they flowed evenly in loud, strong wailings, whose melancholy sounds found their way out of the cellar windows into the courtyard. Matrona in a weak soft alto would sing second to her husband. Both faces at such times would wear a thoughtful, sad expression, and Grischka's dark eyes would grow moist His wife, absorbed in the world of sound, would sit in a half-conscious state, swaying from side to side; sometimes she would appear completely lost in the music, suddenly pausing on a note, and then slowly falling once more into the words of the song her husband was singing. Neither of them felt at such times the presence of the other; they were each pouring forth what seemed to be the whole emptiness and dreariness of their joyless lives, and through the words of the song they were seeking for an outlet for their own half-conscious feelings and thoughts. At times Grischka would improvise-- "Ah! to think of my life, my cursed Life! And the ache in my soul, that cursed ache! Ah! this bitter ache! Ah! this ache and sorrow....!" But Matrona did not love these improvisings, and she generally asked him-- "Why do you howl then like a dog, when death is about?" He immediately answered her angrily-- "Thick-headed creature! What do you understand about things--an old scarecrow like you?" "Oh, howl and howl away, and then bark if you like!" "Hold your tongue! Am I an apprentice, that you want to begin to teach me now, eh?... Just mind your own business!" Matrona saw that his eyes flashed angrily, and that the veins of his neck were swelling. She was silent for some time, refusing to answer the questions of her husband, whose anger had disappeared as quickly as it had arisen. She turned away her face so as not to meet his eyes, which were full of love and of self-reproach for the cruel words he had just spoken. She heeded not his signals of reconciliation, and though awaiting impatiently his smile, trembled with fear lest he should once more lose his temper over this game which she was playing out with him. But it was pleasant to her to sit opposite to him in this defiant mood, and to watch how he longed to make peace with her; it seemed like living, it awoke feeling and gave an object to her thoughts.