Page:Pushkin - Russian Romance (King, 1875).djvu/182

more than once; but they had never hinted at it to each other. The reason is obvious: however much attached to his dear Akulina Aleksèy might have been, he could not forget the distance which separated him from a poor country girl. Lisa, on her part, knew of the enmity which existed between their fathers, and dared not hope for a mutual reconciliation. Besides, her vanity was secretly stimulated by the fanciful hope of at last seeing the owner of Tugilévo at the feet of the Prilútchina blacksmith's daughter.

An important event suddenly threatened to interrupt their mutual relations.

On a clear cold morning (one of those in which our Russian autumn abounds) Ivan Petróvitch Beréstoff went out for a ride, taking with him three couples of sporting dogs, a groom, and several stable boys, provided with, rattles. Grigory Ivánovitch Múromsky, tempted by the brightness of the weather, ordered his short-tailed mare to be saddled, and at about the same hour rode out at a trot round his Anglicized domain. On nearing the wood he noticed his neighbour, who sat his horse proudly in an overcoat lined with fox-fur, on the look-out for a hare which the boys were hunting out of the thicket with their shouts and rattles. Had Grigory Ivánovitch been able to foresee this encounter, he would certainly have turned back; but he had come upon Beréstoff quite unexpectedly, and was now within pistol-shot of him. There was no help for it; Múromsky, like a well-bred European, rode up to his enemy, and politely addressed him. Beréstoff replied with something of the zeal a