But Tyeglev did not stir, did not ask who was knocking,
and merely propped his head on his hand.
Seeing that this no longer acted, after an interval
I pretended to wake up and, looking at Tyeglev, assumed
an air of astonishment.
“Have you been out?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered unconcernedly.
“Did you still hear the knocking?”
“And did the knocking stop?”
“I don’t know. I don’t care
now.”
I felt a little ashamed and a little vexed with him.
I could not bring myself to acknowledge my prank,
however.
“Do you know what?” I began, “I
am convinced that it was all your imagination.”
Tyeglev frowned. “Ah, you think so!”
“You say you heard a knocking?”
“It was not only knocking I heard.”
Tyeglev bent forward and bit his lips. He was
evidently hesitating.
“I was called!” he brought out at last
in a low voice and turned away his face.
“You were called? Who called you?”
“Someone....” Tyeglev still looked
away. “A woman whom I had hitherto only
believed to be dead ... but now I know it for certain.”
“I swear, Ilya Stepanitch,” I cried, “this
is all your imagination!”
“Imagination?” he repeated. “Would
you like to hear it for yourself?”
I hurriedly dressed and went out of the hut with Tyeglev.
On the side opposite to it there were no houses, nothing
but a low hurdle fence broken down in places, beyond
which there was a rather sharp slope down to the plain.
Everything was still shrouded in mist and one could
scarcely see anything twenty paces away. Tyeglev
and I went up to the hurdle and stood still.
“Here,” he said and bowed his head.
“Stand still, keep quiet and listen!”
Like him I strained my ears, and I heard nothing except
the ordinary, extremely faint but universal murmur,
the breathing of the night. Looking at each other
in silence from time to time we stood motionless for
several minutes and were just on the point of going
on.
“Ilyusha ...” I fancied I heard a
whisper from behind the hurdle.
I glanced at Tyeglev but he seemed to have heard nothing—and
still held his head bowed.
“Ilyusha ... ah, Ilyusha,” sounded more
distinctly than before—so distinctly that
one could tell that the words were uttered by a woman.
We both started and stared at each other.
“Well?” Tyeglev asked me in a whisper.
“You won’t doubt it now, will you?”
“Wait a minute,” I answered as quietly.
“It proves nothing. We must look whether
there isn’t anyone. Some practical joker....”
