THE SWEET-SCENTED NAME
boat drawn down the many-watered Rhine by the silver-winged swan."
"Oh, Lohengrin," laughed Mashenka once more.
VIII
Mashenka laughed. She was getting used to speak of him as Lohengrin. Everybody called him that now.
Mashenka laughed, and yet sometimes she fell into a reverie and dreamed. And in her dreams the beautiful form of the stage Lohengrin, clad in shining armour, singing so sweetly and making his theatrically beautiful stage gestures, blended itself with the form of an unattractive young man wearing a fur cap instead of a helmet, and a starched shirt in place of armour; speaking eloquently in his hoarse but pleasant-sounding Yaroslavsky tone of voice, and making these same amusingly-triumphant gestures.
"He loves me, poor boy," thought Mashenka, and the thought became more and more pleasant to her.
To believe firmly that you are beloved by another, is it not as if you yourself loved? And is not love infectious? Sweet, ingratiating, enchanting, love spreads a brightly
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