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"I unhappy?" she said, coming closer to him, and looking at him

with an ecstatic smile of love. "I am like a hungry man who has

been given food. He may be cold, and dressed in rags, and

ashamed, but he is not unhappy. I unhappy? No, this is my

unhappiness...."

She could hear the sound of her son's voice coming towards them,

and glancing swiftly round the terrace, she got up impulsively.

Her eyes glowed with the fire he knew so well; with a rapid

movement she raised her lovely hands, covered with rings, took

his head, looked a long look into his face, and, putting up her

face with smiling, parted lips, swiftly kissed his mouth and both

eyes, and pushed him away. She would have gone, but he held her

back.

"When?" he murmured in a whisper, gazing in ecstasy at her.

"Tonight, at one o'clock," she whispered, and, with a heavy sigh,

she walked with her light, swift step to meet her son.

Seryozha had been caught by the rain in the big garden, and he

and his nurse had taken shelter in an arbor.