Part 6. Chapter 5.

"Varvara Andreevna, when I was very young, I set before myself the ideal of the woman I loved and should be happy to call my wife. «Varvara Andreevna, quand j'étais très jeune, j'ai mis devant moi l'idéal de la femme que j'aimais et que je devrais être heureuse d'appeler ma femme. I have lived through a long life, and now for the first time I have met what I sought—in you. I love you, and offer you my hand." Sergey Ivanovitch was saying this to himself while he was ten paces from Varvara. Kneeling down, with her hands over the mushrooms to guard them from Grisha, she was calling little Masha. Agenouillée, les mains sur les champignons pour les protéger de Grisha, elle appelait la petite Masha.

"Come here, little ones! There are so many!" she was saying in her sweet, deep voice.

Seeing Sergey Ivanovitch approaching, she did not get up and did not change her position, but everything told him that she felt his presence and was glad of it. Pamačiusi artėjantį Sergejų Ivanovičių, ji nepakilo ir nepakeitė savo pozicijos, tačiau viskas jam pasakė, kad ji jaučia jo buvimą ir tuo džiaugiasi.

"Well, did you find some?" she asked from under the white kerchief, turning her handsome, gently smiling face to him.

"Not one," said Sergey Ivanovitch. "Did you?" She did not answer, busy with the children who thronged about her.

"That one too, near the twig," she pointed out to little Masha a little fungus, split in half across its rosy cap by the dry grass from under which it thrust itself. "Celle-là aussi, près de la brindille," fit-elle remarquer à la petite Masha un petit champignon, fendu en deux sur son bonnet rose par l'herbe sèche sous laquelle il se poussait. Varenka got up while Masha picked the fungus, breaking it into two white halves. "This brings back my childhood," she added, moving apart from the children beside Sergey Ivanovitch. "Cela me ramène à mon enfance", a-t-elle ajouté, s'éloignant des enfants à côté de Sergey Ivanovitch. „Tai sugrąžina mano vaikystę“, - pridūrė ji, atsiskirdama nuo vaikų šalia Sergejaus Ivanovičiaus. They walked on for some steps in silence. Varenka saw that he wanted to speak; she guessed of what, and felt faint with joy and panic. They had walked so far away that no one could hear them now, but still he did not begin to speak. It would have been better for Varenka to be silent. After a silence it would have been easier for them to say what they wanted to say than after talking about mushrooms. But against her own will, as it were accidentally, Varenka said:

"So you found nothing? In the middle of the wood there are always fewer, though." Sergey Ivanovitch sighed and made no answer. He was annoyed that she had spoken about the mushrooms. He wanted to bring her back to the first words she had uttered about her childhood; but after a pause of some length, as though against his own will, he made an observation in response to her last words. Il voulait la ramener aux premiers mots qu'elle avait prononcés sur son enfance; mais après une longue pause, comme contre son gré, il fit une observation en réponse à ses derniers mots.

"I have heard that the white edible funguses are found principally at the edge of the wood, though I can't tell them apart." "J'ai entendu dire que les champignons blancs comestibles se trouvent principalement à la lisière du bois, bien que je ne puisse pas les distinguer." Some minutes more passed, they moved still further away from the children, and were quite alone. Varenka's heart throbbed so that she heard it beating, and felt that she was turning red and pale and red again. To be the wife of a man like Koznishev, after her position with Madame Stahl, was to her imagination the height of happiness. Besides, she was almost certain that she was in love with him. And this moment it would have to be decided. She felt frightened. She dreaded both his speaking and his not speaking.

Now or never it must be said—that Sergey Ivanovitch felt too. Il faut dire maintenant ou jamais - ce que ressentait aussi Sergey Ivanovitch. Everything in the expression, the flushed cheeks and the downcast eyes of Varenka betrayed a painful suspense. Tout dans l'expression, les joues rouges et les yeux baissés de Varenka trahissaient un suspense douloureux. Sergey Ivanovitch saw it and felt sorry for her. He felt even that to say nothing now would be a slight to her. Il avait même le sentiment que ne rien dire maintenant serait un reproche pour elle. Rapidly in his own mind he ran over all the arguments in support of his decision. Rapidement dans son esprit, il passa en revue tous les arguments à l'appui de sa décision. He even said over to himself the words in which he meant to put his offer, but instead of those words, some utterly unexpected reflection that occurred to him made him ask:

"What is the difference between the 'birch' mushroom and the 'white' mushroom?" Varenka's lips quivered with emotion as she answered: "In the top part there is scarcely any difference, it's in the stalk." "Dans la partie supérieure, il n'y a pratiquement aucune différence, c'est dans la tige." And as soon as these words were uttered, both he and she felt that it was over, that what was to have been said would not be said; and their emotion, which had up to then been continually growing more intense, began to subside.

"The birch mushroom's stalk suggests a dark man's chin after two days without shaving," said Sergey Ivanovitch, speaking quite calmly now. "La tige du champignon de bouleau suggère le menton d'un homme noir après deux jours sans rasage", a déclaré Sergey Ivanovitch, parlant assez calmement maintenant. "Yes, that's true," answered Varenka smiling, and unconsciously the direction of their walk changed. They began to turn towards the children. Varenka felt both sore and ashamed; at the same time she had a sense of relief.

When he had got home again and went over the whole subject, Sergey Ivanovitch thought his previous decision had been a mistaken one. Lorsqu'il est rentré chez lui et a passé en revue tout le sujet, Sergey Ivanovitch a pensé que sa décision précédente avait été erronée. He could not be false to the memory of Marie. Jis negalėjo būti klaidingas Marijos atminimui.

"Gently, children, gently!" Levin shouted quite angrily to the children, standing before his wife to protect her when the crowd of children flew with shrieks of delight to meet them. Levinas suirzęs šaukė vaikus, stovėdamas priešais žmoną, kad ją apsaugotų, kai minia vaikų su džiaugsmo šūksniais išskrido susitikti su jais. Levin schreeuwde heel boos naar de kinderen, terwijl hij voor zijn vrouw stond om haar te beschermen toen de menigte kinderen met gilletjes van verrukking hen tegemoet vloog.

Behind the children Sergey Ivanovitch and Varenka walked out of the wood. Kitty had no need to ask Varenka; she saw from the calm and somewhat crestfallen faces of both that her plans had not come off. Kitty n'avait pas besoin de demander à Varenka; elle a vu des visages calmes et quelque peu décontenancés des deux que ses plans n'avaient pas abouti.

"Well?" her husband questioned her as they were going home again.

"It doesn't bite," said Kitty, her smile and manner of speaking recalling her father, a likeness Levin often noticed with pleasure. "Ça ne mord pas," dit Kitty, son sourire et sa manière de parler rappelant son père, une ressemblance que Levin remarqua souvent avec plaisir. "How doesn't bite?" "I'll show you," she said, taking her husband's hand, lifting it to her mouth, and just faintly brushing it with closed lips. «Je vais vous montrer», dit-elle en prenant la main de son mari, en la portant à sa bouche et en la frottant légèrement avec les lèvres fermées. - Aš tau parodysiu, - tarė ji, paėmusi vyro ranką, pakėlusi ją prie burnos ir tik silpnai valydama užmerktomis lūpomis. "Like a kiss on a priest's hand." "Which didn't it bite with?" "Avec quoi ça n'a pas mordu?" he said, laughing.

"Both. But it should have been like this…" "There are some peasants coming…" "Oh, they didn't see." "Oh, ils n'ont pas vu."