Chapter 10 chapter Ten

Natasha stepped out of the living room and ran away, only to the conservatory.She stopped in this room and waited for Boris to come out the door.She is getting impatient.He didn't come right away, she paused her feet and was about to burst into tears, when she heard the young man's gentle steps, neither fast nor slow.Natasha ran quickly among the vases and hid herself. Boris stopped in the middle of the room, looked around, brushed the dust off the sleeves of his uniform, went to the mirror, and took a good look at his handsome face.Natasha said nothing, looked out from her hiding place, and waited to see what he would do.He stood in front of the mirror for a moment, smiled slightly, and walked towards the gate.Natasha wanted to call him, but changed her mind.

"Let him find it," she said to herself.Just as Boris came out, Sonia, blushing and whispering resentment through her tears, came out by another door.Natasha held back, didn't start and ran towards her, and stayed in the hiding place, like wearing an invisibility hat, spying on the movement of the world from time to time.She's enjoying a very new kind of pleasure.Sonia whispered something, and looked back at the drawing-room door.Nikolai came out of the door. "Sonya, what's the matter with you? How could it be?" said Nikolay, running up to her. "It's nothing, it's nothing, leave me alone!" Sonia burst into tears.

"No, I know why." "Oh, you know, very well, you go to her." "Sonya! I have something to tell you! You can't torture me like that, and yourself like that!" said Nikolay, grabbing her hand. Sonia did not try to free herself, and stopped crying. Natasha held her breath and looked out of her hiding place with shining eyes. "What's going to happen now?" she wondered. "Sonya! I don't want the whole world! You are everything to me," said Nikolai. "I prove to you what I say." "I don't like it when you talk like that."

"Oh, I won't say any more, well, Sonia, forgive me!" He drew her to him and kissed her. "Oh, how wonderful!" thought Natasha, following Sonya and Nicholas when they had left the room, and calling Boris to her. "Come here, Boris," she said, with significant slyness, "I have something to tell you. Come here, come here," she said, turning him Lead it to the flower bucket where she hid in the flower room.Boris smiled and followed her. "What is it all about?" he asked. Embarrassed, she looked around, saw her doll, which had been thrown on the vase, and picked it up.

"Kiss the doll," she said. Boris looked at her excited face with concerned and gentle eyes, but made no answer. "Won't you? Come here, come here," she said, and walked farther into the bushes, throwing the doll away. "Come closer, come closer!" she said softly.She clutched the officer's cuffs with both hands, and a look of excitement and terror could be seen on her flushed face. "Will you kiss me?" she whispered, barely audible, looking at him frowning, smiling, almost crying with excitement. Boris blushed. "How ridiculous you are!" he said, bending over her, blushing even more, but doing nothing but waiting for a good opportunity.

She jumped suddenly onto the vase, taller than he was, and embraced him with her own hands, so that her slender bare arms arched above his neck, and she threw back her head. , tossing her hair back, kissed him right on the lips. She ran through the middle of the flower pot to the other side of the flowers, bowed her head, and stopped. "Natasha," he said, "you know I love you, but..." "Are you in love with me?" Natasha interrupted him. "Yes, I'm in love with you, but you see, really, let's not be as rash as we were just now. . . . In four years . . . then I'll propose to you."

Natasha thought for a moment. "Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen..." she said, flexing her slender fingers to count, "very good! So is it a foregone conclusion?" A smile of joy and reassurance brightened her excited face. "It's a foregone conclusion!" said Boris. "Forever?" said the little girl, "until the end of your life?" So she took his arm, showed a lucky look, and quietly walked side by side with him into the lounge full of sofas.