her large, clear blue eyes. They were holding each other by the hands.
"You want to say something to me," she said at last.
"I don't know,' answered Ordynov; everything was dark before his eyes.
"See what a state you're in. There, my dove, there; don't grieve, don't pine; sit here at the table in the sun; sit quiet, and don't follow me," "she added, seeing that the young man made a movement as though to keep her. "I will be with you again at once; you have plenty of time to see as much as you want of me. A minute later she brought in the tea, put it on the table, and sat down opposite him.
"Come, drink it up," she said. "Does your head ache?"
"No, now it doesn't ache," he said. "I don't know, perhaps it does. . . . I don't want any . . . enough, enough! . . . I don't know what's the matter with me," he said, breathless, and finding her hand at last. "Stay here, don't go away from me; give me your hand again. . . . It's all dark before my eyes; I look at you as though you were the sun," he said, as it were tearing the words out of his heart, and almost swooning with ecstasy as he uttered them. His throat was choking with sobs.
"Poor fellow! It seems you have not lived with anyone kind. You are all lonely and forlorn. Haven't you any relations?"
"No, no one; I am alone . . . never mind, it's no matter! Now it's better; am all right now," said Ordynov, as though in delirium. The room seemed to him to be going round.
"I, too, have not seen my people for many years. You look at me as . . ." she said, after a minute's silence.
"Well . . . what?"
"You look at me as though my eyes were warming you! You know, when you love anyone . . . I took you to my heart from the first word. If you are ill I will look after you again. Only don't you be ill; no. When you get up we will live like brother and sister. Will you? You know it's difficult to get a sister if God has not given you one."
"Who are you? Where do you come from?" said Ordynov in a weak voice.
"I am not of these parts. . . . You know the folks tell how twelve brothers lived in a dark forest, and how a fair maiden lost her way in that forest. She went to them and tidied everything in the house for them, and put her love into everything.
