CHAPTER II

II

The young men went down to the river Moskva and walked along its bank. There was a breath of freshness from the water, and the soft plash of tiny waves caressed the ear.
"I would have another bathe," said Shubin, "only I'm afraid of being late. Look at the river; it seems to beckon us. The ancient Greeks would have beheld a nymph in it.

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But we are not Greeks, O nymph! we are thick - skinned Scythians."
"We have roussalkas," observed Bersenyev.
"Get along with your roussalkas! What's the use to me-a sculptor-of those children of a cold, terror - stricken fancy, those shapes begotten in the stifling hut, in the dark of winter nights? I want light, space....

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Good God, when shall I go to Italy? When--"
"To Little Russia, I suppose you mean?"
"For shame, Andrei Petrovitch, to reproach me for an act of unpremeditated folly, which I have repented bitterly enough without that. Oh, of course, I behaved like a fool; Anna Vassilyevna most kindly gave me the money for an expedition to Italy, and I went off to the Little Russians to eat dumplings and--"

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"Don't let me have the rest, please," interposed Bersenyev.
"Yet still, I will say, the money was not spent in vain. I saw there such types, especially of women.... Of course, I know; there is no salvation to be found outside of Italy!"

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"You will go to Italy," said Bersenyev, without turning towards him, "and will do nothing. You will always be pluming your wings and never take flight. We know you!"
"Stavasser has taken flight.... And he's not the only one. If I don't fly, it will prove that I'm a sea penguin, and have no wings. I am stifled here, I want to be in Italy," pursued Shubin, "there is sunshine, there is beauty."
A young girl in a large straw hat, with a pink parasol on her shoulder, came into sight at that instant, in the little path along which the friends were walking.

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"But what do I see? Even here, there is beauty-coming to meet us! A humble artist's compliments to the enchanting Zoya!" Shubin cried at once, with a theatrical flourish of his hat.

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