Page:Chekhov - The Darling and other Stories (Macmillan, 1917).djvu/345

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Three Years
329

saw the enthusiasm with which Yartsev looked at her when he met her, and the way her new, lovely expression was reflected in his face, which looked mournful and ecstatic too. One would have thought that he was seeing her for the first time in his life. And while they were at lunch on the verandah, Yartsev smiled with a sort of joyous shyness, and kept gazing at Yulia and at her beautiful neck. Laptev could not help watching them while he thought that he had perhaps another thirteen, another thirty years of life before him. . . . And what would he have to live through in that time? What is in store for us in the future?

And he thought:

"Let us live, and we shall see."

THE END

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA