Summary of the work Grammar of Love Bunin. "Grammar of Love"
Grammar of love
Someone Ivlev was driving one day at the beginning of June to the far end of his county. At first it was pleasant to drive: a warm, dull day, a well-knurled road. Then the weather became dull, clouds pulled up, and when a village appeared ahead, Ivlev decided to call on the count. An old man who plowed near the village said that there was only one young countess at home, but they stopped by anyway.
The countess was in a pink hood, with an open powdered chest; she smoked, often straightened her hair, exposing her tight and round arms to her shoulders. She reduced all conversations to love and, among other things, told about her neighbor, the landowner Khvoshchinsky, who died this winter and, as Ivlev knew from childhood, was obsessed with love for his maid Lushka, who died in early youth.
When Ivlev drove on, the rain broke up for real. “So Khvoshchinsky died,” thought Ivlev. - We must definitely stop by, look at the empty sanctuary of the mysterious Lushka ... What kind of person was this Khvoshchinsky? Crazy? Or just a dazed soul? According to the stories of the old landowners, Khvoshchinsky was once known in the county as a rare clever man. And suddenly this Lushka fell on him - and everything went to dust: he shut himself up in the room where Lushka lived and died, and spent more than twenty years sitting on her bed ...
It was evening, the rain had thinned, and Khvoshchinsky appeared behind the forest. Ivlev looked at the approaching estate, and it seemed to him that Lushka lived and died not twenty years ago, but almost in time immemorial.
The facade of the estate, with its small windows set in thick walls, was unusually dull. But the gloomy porches were huge, on one of which stood a young man in a gymnasium blouse, black, with beautiful eyes and very pretty, although he was completely freckled.
In order to somehow justify his arrival, Ivlev said that he wanted to see and, perhaps, buy the library of the late master. The young man, blushing deeply, led him into the house. “So he is the son of the famous Lushka!” - thought Ivlev, looking around the house and, gradually, its owner.
The young man answered the questions hastily, but in monosyllables, out of shyness, apparently, and from greed: he was so terribly delighted at the opportunity to sell books at a high price. Through a half-dark vestibule lined with straw, he led Ivlev into a large and uninviting anteroom, covered with newspapers. Then they entered the cold hall, which occupied almost half of the entire house. In the shrine, on a dark ancient image in a silver riza, were wedding candles.
“Batiushka bought them after her death,” the young man muttered, “and even wedding ring always worn... The floor in the hall was all covered with dry bees, as was the empty living room. Then they passed some kind of gloomy room with a couch, and the young man unlocked the low door with great difficulty. Ivlev saw a closet with two windows; against one wall stood a bare bunk, against the other two bookcases - a library.
Strange books made up this library! "Sworn Tract", "Morning Star and Night Demons", "Reflections on the Mysteries of the Universe", "Wonderful Journey to a Magical Land", " The latest dream book”- this is what the lonely soul of the recluse ate, “there is being ... it is neither a dream, nor a vigil ...”. The sun peeked out from behind the lilac clouds and strangely illuminated this poor shelter of love, which turned a whole human life into some kind of ecstatic life, a life that could have been the most ordinary life, had it not been for Lushka, mysterious in her charm ...
"What is this?" - asked Ivlev, leaning over to the middle shelf, on which lay only one very small book, similar to a prayer book, and there was a darkened casket. In the casket lay the necklace of the late Lushka - a bunch of cheap blue balls. And such excitement seized Ivlev at the sight of this necklace, which lay around the neck of the once so beloved woman, that his heart began to beat furiously. Ivlev carefully put the box back in place and took up the little book. It was The Grammar of Love, or the Art of Loving and Being Mutually Loved, beautifully published almost a hundred years ago.
“Unfortunately, I cannot sell this book,” the young man said with difficulty, “it is very expensive ...” Overcoming awkwardness, Ivlev began to slowly leaf through the Grammar.
It was all divided into small chapters: “On beauty”, “On the heart”, “On the mind”, “On the signs of love” ... Each chapter consisted of short and elegant maxims, some of which were delicately marked with a pen: “Love is not simple episodes in our lives. - We adore a woman because she rules over our ideal dream. - A beautiful woman should occupy the second step; the first belongs to a lovely woman.
This becomes the mistress of our heart: before we give an account of it to ourselves, our heart becomes a slave of love forever ... "Then there was an" explanation of the language of flowers ", and again something was noted. And on a clean page at the very end was a small, beaded quatrain written with the same pen. The young man craned his neck and said with a mock grin: “They themselves composed this…”
Half an hour later, Ivlev said goodbye to him with relief. Of all the books, he bought only this little book for a high price. On the way back, the coachman told me that young Khvoshchinsky lived with the deacon's wife, but Ivlev did not listen. He kept thinking about Lushka, about her necklace, which left him with a complex feeling, similar to what he once experienced in an Italian town when looking at the relics of a saint. “She entered my life forever!” he thought. And, taking out the "Grammar of Love" from his pocket, he slowly reread the verses written on its last page.
The hearts of those who love will say to you:
"Live in sweet legends!"
And grandchildren, great-grandchildren will show
This Grammar of Love.
The story "Grammar of Love" by Bunin was written in 1915. Like most of the writer's works, the book is dedicated to love. This was a favorite theme of all Bunin's work, which, like no one else, could show all the diversity and versatility of this feeling.
Main characters
Ivlev- a landowner, a middle-aged man who was deeply struck by the story of Khvoshchinsky's love for Lushka.
Other characters
Countess– young unmarried girl whose thoughts are only occupied with love.
Khvoshchinsky- the late landowner, who in his life passionately loved only one woman - Lushka.
Lushka- Khvoshchinsky's maid, who, according to legend, drowned herself twenty years ago.
Young Khvoshchinsky- a young man, the son of the landowner Khvoshchinsky and Lushka, an attractive young man.
In early June, the landowner Ivlev went "to the far end of his county." At first, the trip pleased him - it was a warm summer day, permeated with the aromas of herbs and the singing of a lark. But soon "the weather got dull, molting clouds pulled on all sides", and a fine rain began to drizzle. In order not to be in the middle of the field in the pouring rain, Ivlev decided to call on a familiar count who lived nearby. From the old plowman, he learned that "there is only one young countess at home", but this did not stop him.
The countess greeted the guest in an open dress with a deep neckline and powdered breasts. "She smoked, inhaling deeply," and all conversations invariably reduced to love. In the conversation, the countess mentioned "her close neighbor, the landowner Khvoshchinsky", who died this winter. All his life he suffered from love for the maid Lushka, whom he literally idolized.
Ivlev continued on his way, and "the rain broke up for real." Thinking about the fate of Khvoshchinsky, he decided to visit "the deserted sanctuary of the mysterious Lushka." Ivlev wanted to find out for himself whether he was crazy or just a hostage of a fatal passion.
"According to the stories of old landowners" Khvoshchinsky once had the fame of a rare clever girl. But, like a bolt from the blue, this love for Lushka fell on him, "then her unexpected death", and the man's life went awry. He shut himself up in the room where his beloved lived and died, and "sat on her bed for more than twenty years." Khvoshchinsky "not only did not go anywhere, but even at his estate he did not show himself to anyone."
A handsome "young man in a gray gymnasium blouse" stood on the porch of the unkempt estate, looking with surprise at the unexpected guests. Ivlev understood that “this is the son of the famous Lushka”, and he explained his sudden arrival to the young man by the fact that he “wants to see and maybe buy the library” of Khvoshchinsky.
In conversation, the young man was embarrassed, spoke hastily, but in monosyllables, often blushed. It was noticeable that he was very happy about the opportunity to sell books. When Ivlev casually mentioned his father’s illness, the young man flared up and remarked that “they weren’t mentally ill at all,” and this is all idle gossip.
In the half of the house where he spent his last days landowner Khvoshchinsky, it was very cold - no one lived here, and the room was not heated. In the hall, Ivlev noticed wedding candles near the icons. To his unconcealed surprise, the young man replied with embarrassment that “they bought these candles after her death ... and they even always wore a wedding ring ...”. He led his guest into a small dark room, in which stood only a bare iron bed and two bookcases.
Ivlev began to examine the library of the late Khvoshchinsky. It was based on novels and dream books - "that's what that lonely soul ate that forever closed itself from the world in this closet." On the middle shelf, Ivlev noticed a thin book and an old box in which Lushka's necklace was located - "a worn-out lace, a low price of cheap blue balls."
When looking at the beads of a woman who was so much loved during life and after death, Ivlev felt dizzy. The tiny book turned out to be "The Grammar of Love, or the Art of Loving and Being Mutually Loved". The young man timidly said that he could not sell her, as she was very dear to his late father.
Ivlev asked permission to at least look at it and, having received consent, began to slowly leaf through it. The book was divided into small chapters, and each of them "consisted of short, elegant, sometimes very subtle maxims." On the last blank page, in beaded handwriting, was a quatrain composed by Khvoshchinsky.
Of all the books, Ivlev chose only one - "Grammar of Love ...", paying a lot of money for it. On the way home, the coachman began to tell that young Khvoshchinsky was living with the deacon's wife, but Ivlev did not listen to him. All his thoughts were occupied by Lushka and the excitement that seized him at the sight of her modest necklace. These feelings were similar to those he experienced in Italy "when looking at the relics of a saint."
Ivlev realized that Lushka, unknown to him, who died twenty years ago, entered his life forever. Taking out the "Grammar of Love ...", he once again re-read the lines written by Khvoshchinsky.
The hearts of those who love will say to you:
"Live in sweet legends!"
And grandchildren, great-grandchildren will show
This Grammar of Love.
Conclusion
In his work, Bunin emphasizes that the most valuable thing in life is love - sincere, bright, pure. And not every person is able to survive the pain of her loss.
A brief retelling of the "Grammar of Love" will be useful for reader's diary and preparation for the lesson of literature.
Story test
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Retelling rating
average rating: 4.6. Total ratings received: 146.
The beginning of June. Ivlev goes to the far end of his county. At first it is pleasant to go: a warm, dim day, a well-knurled road. Then clouds cover the sky. and Ivlev decides to call on the count, whose village is just down the road. An old man working near the village reports that only the young countess is at home, but Ivlev still stops by.
The countess in a pink hood, with an open powdered chest, smokes, often straightening her hair and exposing her tight and round arms to her shoulders. She reduces all conversations to love and, among other things, talks about her neighbor, the landowner Khvoshchinsky, who died this winter and was obsessed with love for his maid Lushka, who died at an early age.
Ivlev rides on, thinks what kind of person the landowner Khvoshchinsky was, and wants to look "at the deserted sanctuary of the mysterious Lushka." According to the stories of the old landowners, Khvoshchinsky was once known in the county as a rare clever girl, but fell in love - and everything went to pieces. He shut himself up in the room where Lushka lived and died, and spent more than twenty years sitting on her bed...
It is getting dark, Khvoshchinskoe is shown behind the forest. On the gloomy porch of the estate, Ivlev notices a pretty young man in a gymnasium blouse. Ivlev justifies his arrival with the desire to see and, possibly, buy the library of the late master. The young man leads him into the house, and Ivlev guesses that he is the son of the famous Lushka.
The young man answers questions hastily, but in monosyllables. He is terribly glad of the opportunity to sell books dearly. Through a semi-dark entrance hall and a large entrance hall, he leads Ivlev into a cold hall, which occupies almost half of the house. Wedding candles lie on a dark ancient image in a silver riza. The young man says that “father they bought them after her death ... and even the wedding ring was always worn ...”.
From the hall they go into a gloomy room with a couch, and the young man hardly unlocks the low door. Ivlev sees a closet through two windows; against one wall stands a bare bunk, against the other, a library in two bookcases.
Ivlev discovers that the library is made up of very strange books. Mystical novels and dream books - this is what the lonely soul of a recluse ate. On the middle shelf, Ivlev finds a very small book, similar to a prayer book, and a darkened box with the deceased Lushka's necklace - a string of cheap blue balls.
When looking at this necklace, which lay around the neck of a once so beloved woman, Ivlev is overcome with excitement. He carefully puts the box back in its place and takes the little book. It turns out to be the Grammar of Love, or the Art of Loving and Being Mutually Loved, charmingly published almost a hundred years ago. The young man considers it the most expensive book in the library.
Ivlev slowly flips through Grammar. It is divided into small chapters: "On beauty", "On the heart", "On the mind", "On the signs of love" ... Each chapter consists of short and elegant maxims, some of which are delicately marked with a pen. Then comes the "explanation of the language of flowers", and again something is noted. And on a clean page at the very end, a quatrain is written in small, beaded letters with the same pen. The young man explains with a feigned grin: "They themselves composed this...".
Half an hour later, Ivlev says goodbye to him with relief. Of all the books, he buys only this little book for a lot of money. On the way back, the coachman tells that the young Khvoshchinsky lives with the deacon's wife, but Ivlev does not listen. He thinks about Lushka, about her necklace, which left him with a complex feeling, similar to the one he experienced in one Italian town when looking at the relics of a saint. “She entered my life forever!” - Ivlev thinks and rereads the verses written with a pen on a blank page of the “Grammar of Love”: “The hearts of those who loved will say to you:“ Live in sweet legends! And grandchildren, great-grandchildren will be shown this Grammar of Love.
The works of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin are among the best in world literature. And although since the 20th year of the twentieth century the writer left the country without accepting Soviet power, his thoughts were always with the Motherland. That is why all his stories and novels contain stories from the life of the Russian people.Love is one of the favorite themes of the great writer. Bunin constantly returned to her, creating new delightful works. By the way, the very first works devoted to the theme of love include the deep and talented story “Grammar of Love”.
Story title
Already the name of Bunin's work - "Grammar of Love" sounds somehow strange in such an unusual combination. It is known that this story was conceived by the writer as a short story, and created in 1915. Later, this story was included in Bunin's lyrical collection with the poetic title "Dark Alleys".
Ivan Alekseevich describes in his story a love that can flare up instantly, like a flash. Appearing from a small spark, it can flare up brightly, but not always stay.
In the work main character buys a book that bears a title consonant with the story itself. It turns out that such a book actually existed in foreign literature. Its author was a certain Hippolyte Jules Demolière. This is what Bunin refers to in his work.
The plot of the work
A certain Mr. Ivlev, in the midst of a hot summer, travels around his county. He talks with the driver, but the conversation turns out to be boring. Then the main character simply, without any purpose, began to look out the window. And fields and meadows floated by, which did not allow him to concentrate on any detail. Soon Ivnev is already driving up to the countess's house, appearance which did not evoke in him such a pleasant picture as nature flickering past him during the trip. Her appearance simply openly annoys the main character, and she immediately began to flirt with him. But still, she reminds Ivnev of a story that he has heard before. Now she is more interested than usual. This story involved the local landowner Khvoshchinsky, who fell madly in love with his maid Lushka.
Soon Ivnev is approaching the Khvoshchinsky estate. He quickly remembered the love story where the landowner, even after the death of his servant, spent twenty years of his life near her mattress, on which she lay dying. He also died there. And then the old estate of the landowner appeared, where a tragic love story took place. Ivnev somehow found it easy to breathe in this place. But unfortunately, the main character sees around him only devastation and desolation. And on the threshold he was met by a young man - the son of Lushka and the landowner. The young man is interesting to Ivnev. The protagonist carefully examined the fruit of different-status love.
But Special attention draws on the house of Khvoshchinsky, which Ivnev carefully examines. Strange furniture and gloomy atmosphere of the house takes the protagonist to another world. He sees old books, reads their strange titles and tries to unravel the mystery of love. His hands are trembling, but he experiences special excitement in the room where Lushka lived. He immediately pays attention to the details, and there are not so many of them here:
Prayer book.
A box with time-blackened silver.
Lushka's necklace.
Looking at the necklace of a deceased woman who has experienced love, the protagonist feels an excitement that he has never felt before. But the attention of the narrator was attracted not only by the decoration of the deceased, but also by the little book with the title that Bunin gave to his story. Ivlev could not restrain himself and began leafing through this brochure. The protagonist buys this book from the young owner and leaves the estate, where a tragic love story once happened. But the verses that were written down by two lovers on the last page of the book he purchased, Ivnev reread several times.
Characteristics of the actors
There are few heroes in the novel "Grammar of Love", but their characteristic is a deep psychological portrait of each hero, which is given by Bunin for an accurate presentation of the plot and understanding of the main theme - the theme of love.
The characters in the story include:
♦ Ivlev.
♦ Countess.
♦ Landowner Khvoshchinsky.
♦ Maid Lushka.
♦ Lushka's son, a young and handsome young man.
Khvoshchinsky was once respected by all the local nobility, and this landowner was known as a "great clever man." But as soon as love happened in his life, he could only hear condemnations and see reproachful glances. When he fell in love with a maid, everything just went to dust for him. And after Lushka's death, he sat by her bed for another twenty years, not caring about anything. Here he died.
The countess, to whom the protagonist stopped by, was a large, aged woman. But this did not stop her from constantly talking about love. Trying to gain charm, she smoked, and this pushed the narrator away from her even more. She evoked a feeling of irritation in the main character.
The son of Lushka and the landowner Khvoshchinsky was interesting. Bunin describes it like this:
"Black, with beautiful eyes and very pretty, although his face was pale and motley from freckles, like a bird's egg."
He is greedy, easily agrees, and even glad to sell his parents' books, but he is always embarrassed.
Artistic features of the text
If you re-read the first line of the work several times, you will notice how the month of June, when the action takes place, echoes with the name of the protagonist, on behalf of whom the story is being told - Ivlev. Here the writer uses one of the artistic and expressive means - the alliteration of sonorous sounds. By the way, these techniques, which are often used in poetry, are not accidental here, since the entire plot of the novel "Grammar of Love" is based on the correct techniques and obeys the laws of lyrics.
The writer uses in his text such a technique as irony. The beautiful margins and a certain young man, whom the writer himself calls "small", look like a contrast in the text. His appearance is clumsy and ridiculous: a cap, which was still quite new, and a jacket that sat on him baggy and clumsy. And this funny "small", pretending to be serious, was doing an important job: he was instructed to change the master's horses.
There are a lot of epithets in the text. For example, in the estate of Khvoshchinsky, he sees a tree, and immediately selects the following expressions for it: God's tree, sweet creature. In contrast, a description of the house of the landowner Khvoshchinsky is also given. Clumsy furniture, beautiful and elegant dishes. Dead bees, with which the entire floor in one of the landowner's rooms is strewn, returns Ivlev to reality. But the main line remains the line of love, which, like a magnet, attracts the main character.
Analysis of the novel
Bunin's story "Grammar of Love" begins simply and usually. It seems that nothing should be expected, but researchers of Ivan Alekseevich's work have always paid attention to the fact that the great writer attached his special importance to the very beginning of the work, its first sentences. Bunin used this technique in order to aim his reader, to prepare for what will be discussed throughout the novel. In the text, next to the poetic beginning, there are real things that have an everyday description. For example, the carriage on which the main character travels has not only a crooked top, but is also dusty. Or the coachman, about whom the writer himself says that he is economic, but does not understand jokes at all.
It is worth noting that Ivan Alekseevich, in order to more colorfully convey the state of his hero, connects to the description the nature that the nobleman sees around. At first it is vast expanses, majestic beauty. But after visiting the Countess, Ivnev's mood changes and this can already be determined by how the weather changes dramatically. It becomes boring, dirty, dark.
Imperceptibly, Bunin leads the reader to the beginning of his story, recalling the love of the landowner and the servant. After all, this thought will settle in the head of the protagonist for a long time. But the description of the house leads the reader into bewilderment. Everything in it was preserved, as before. It was as if there was a secret that only two knew. And when Ivlev leaves the Khvoshchinsky estate, the author again uses the landscape to convey his mood. He writes that it was not cloudy outside, but a cloudy golden dawn. After all, this love story left him with a complex feeling.
The writer in his work argued that love cannot have any barriers and distances, no prejudices can stop the beautiful attraction of souls. But this feeling is elusive and fleeting. Most often, love is associated with tragedy, broken and crippled destinies, with bitterness. Ivan Alekseevich regrets that real love, flashing quickly, fades into the past. He believes that modern people are no longer capable of madly and sincerely loving. And the countess is a bright representative of those women who put in the first place not an exalted feeling, but the attraction of the flesh. Therefore, it causes both the writer and his hero only irritation.
Bunin Ivan Alekseevich
Grammar of love
I. A. Bunin
Grammar of love
Someone Ivlev was driving one day at the beginning of June to the far end of his county.
A tarantass with a crooked, dusty top was given to him by his brother-in-law, on whose estate he spent the summer. He hired a trio of horses "small, but well-managed, with thick, knocked down manes, in the village, from a rich peasant. They were ruled by the son of this peasant, a young man of about eighteen, stupid, economic. He kept thinking about something displeasedly, seemed to be something then he was offended, did not understand jokes. And, making sure that you would not talk to him, Ivlev gave himself up to that calm and aimless observation that goes so well to the fret of hooves and the rumble of bells.
At first it was pleasant to drive: a warm, dull day, a well-trodden road, a lot of flowers and larks in the fields; from the loaves, from the low gray rye that stretched as far as the eye could see, a sweet breeze blew, carrying flower dust along their jambs, in places it smoked it, and far from it it was even foggy. Small, in a new cap and a clumsy luster jacket. sat straight; the fact that the horses were completely entrusted to him and that he was dressed up made him especially serious. And the horses coughed and ran unhurriedly, the left tie-down at times scratched the wheel, at times tightened, and at times a worn horseshoe flashed under it like white steel.
Shall we visit the Count? asked the fellow, without turning around, when a village appeared ahead, closing the horizon with its vines and garden.
What for? Ivlev asked.
The little one was silent for a while, and, knocking down a large gadfly stuck to the horse with a whip, answered gloomily:
Let's drink tea...
Do not have tea in your head, - said Ivlev. - You feel sorry for all the horses.
The horse is not afraid of riding, it is afraid of the stern, - the fellow answered instructively.
Ivlev looked around: the weather had become dull, molting clouds had pulled in from all sides and it was already drizzling - these modest days always end in regular rains ... An old man who plowed near the village said that there was only one young countess at home, but still stopped by. The little one pulled the coat over his shoulders and, pleased with that that the horses are resting, calmly soaking in the rain on the goats of the tarantass, which has stopped in the middle of a dirty yard, near a stone trough, grown into the ground, pierced by the hooves of cattle. He looked at his boots, straightened the harness on the root with a whip, and Ivlev sat in the drawing room darkened from the rain, chatted with the countess and waited for tea; there was already the smell of a burning torch, the green smoke of the samovar was thickly floating past the open windows, which the barefoot girl stuffed on the porch with bundles of chips of brightly blazing red-brown fire, dousing them with kerosene. The countess was in a wide pink bonnet, with an open powdered chest; she smoked, inhaling deeply, often straightening her hair, exposing her tight and round arms to her shoulders; inhaling and laughing, she kept reducing the conversation to love and, among other things, talked about her close neighbor, the landowner Khvbshchinsky, who, as Ivlev knew from childhood, was obsessed with love for his maid Lushka, who died in early youth. - “Ah, this legendary Lushka!” Ivlev remarked jokingly, slightly embarrassed by his confession. “Because this eccentric idolized her, devoted his whole life to crazy dreams about her, in my youth I was almost in love with her, imagined, thought about her, God knows what, although she, they say, was not at all good herself. - "Yes?" said the countess, not listening. - He died this winter. And Pisarev, the only one whom he sometimes allowed to visit him out of old friendship, claims that in everything else he was not at all crazy, and I quite believe this - just he was not the present couple..." Finally, the barefoot girl, with extraordinary care, served on an old silver tray a glass of strong gray tea from a pond and a basket of cookies infested with flies.
When we went further, the rain broke up for real. I had to raise the top, cover myself with a red-hot, shriveled apron, and sit bent over. Horses rumbled like capercaillie, trickles ran down their dark and shiny haunches, grasses rustled under the wheels of some border among the bread, where the kid rode in the hope of shortening the path, a warm rye spirit gathered under the horseback, interfering with the smell of an old tarantass ... "So "Is Khvoshchinsky dead," Ivlev thought. "We must definitely stop by, at least to look at this empty sanctuary of the mysterious Lushka ... But what kind of person was this Khvoshchinsky? Crazy or just some kind of stunned, all focused soul?" According to the stories of old landowners, Khvoshchinsky's peers, he was once known in the district for a rare clever man. And suddenly this love fell on him, this Lushka, then her unexpected death, - and everything went to dust: he shut himself up in the house, in the room where Lushka lived and died, and for more than twenty years he sat on her bed, not only did not go anywhere , and even at his estate he did not show himself to anyone; The mattress on Lushka's bed sat through and through and Lushkin attributed literally everything that happened in the world to Lushkin's influence: a thunderstorm sets - this is Lushka sending a thunderstorm, war is declared - that means Lushka decided that, a crop failure happened - the peasants did not please Lushka ...
Are you going to Khvoshchinskoye, or something? Ivlev shouted, leaning out into the rain.
To Khvoshchinskoye, - the small one answered indistinctly through the sound of rain, from the drooping cap of which water was already flowing. - On Pisarev top ...
Ivlev did not know such a path. Places became poorer and more deaf. The frontier was over, the horses walked at a pace and lowered the rickety tarantass with a blurry pothole downhill, into some still unmowed meadows, the green slopes of which stood out sadly against the low clouds. Then the road, now disappearing, then resuming, began to move from one side to another along the bottoms of ravines, along gullies in alder bushes and willows ... There was someone's small apiary, several stocks standing on a slope in tall grass, reddening with strawberries. .. We drove around some old dam, drowned in nettles, and a long-dry pond - a deep yaruga, overgrown with weeds taller than human height ... A pair of black little sandpipers rushed out of them with a cry into the rainy sky ... And on the dam, among the nettles, a large old bush bloomed with small pale pink flowers, that lovely tree, which is called " god tree", - and suddenly Ivlev remembered the places, remembered that he had ridden here more than once in his youth ...
They say she drowned herself here, ”the fellow said unexpectedly.
Are you talking about Khvoshchinsky's mistress, or what? Ivlev asked. - This is not true, she did not even think of drowning herself.
No, she drowned, - said the kid. - Well, I just think that he most likely went mad from poverty from his own, and not from her ... And, after a pause, he added rudely:
And we have to stop by again ... to this, to Khvoshchino ... Look, how tired the horses are!
Do me a favor, - said Ivlev.
On a hillock, where a road made of tin from rainwater led, in the place of a reduced forest, among wet, rotting wood chips and leaves, among stumps and young aspen shoots, smelling bitter and fresh, a hut stood alone. Not a soul was around, only oatmeal, sitting on tall flowers in the rain, rang to the entire rare forest that rose behind the hut, but when the troika, splashing through the mud, caught up with its threshold, a whole horde of huge dogs, black , chocolate, smoky, and boiled around the horses with a furious bark, soaring up to their very muzzles, turning over on the fly and spinning even under the top of the tarantass. At the same time, and just as unexpectedly, the sky above the tarantass was split by a deafening clap of thunder, the fellow rushed furiously to beat the dogs with a whip, and the horses galloped among the aspen trunks that flashed before their eyes ...
