At the foot of the hill it was less dark. Moonlight lay on the river,
and a cool breeze from its broad surface fanned their cheeks.
Mysteriously the wood receded in the gloom, as though it had given them
into the river's charge.
"Where is your boat?"
"There it is."
The boat lay sharply defined against the bright, smooth surface of the
stream. While Sanine got the oars into position, Sina, balancing
herself with outstretched arms, took her place in the stern. All at
once the moonlight and the luminous reflections from the water gave a
fantastic radiance to her form. Pushing off the boat from land, Sanine
sprang into it. With a slight grating sound the keel slid over the sand
and cut the water, as the boat swam into the moonlight, leaving broad
ripples in its wake.
"Let me row," said Sina, suddenly endued with strange, overmastering
strength. "I love rowing."
"Very well, sit here, then," said Sanine, standing in the middle of the
boat.
Again her supple form brushed lightly past him and as, with his finger-
tips, she touched his proffered hand, he could glance downwards at her
shapely bosom....
Thus they floated down the stream. The moonlight, shining upon her pale
face with its dark eyebrows and gleaming eyes, gave a certain lustre to
her simple white dress. To Sanine it seemed as if they were entering a
land of faerie, far removed from all men, outside the pale of human law
and reason.
"What a lovely night!" exclaimed Sina.
"Lovely, isn't it?" replied Sanine in an undertone.
All at once, she burst out laughing.
"I don't know why, but I feel as if I should like to throw my hat into
the water, and let down my hair," she said, yielding to a sudden
impulse.
"Then do it, by all means," murmured Sanine.
But she grew ill at ease and was silent.
Under the stimulating influence of the calm, sultry, unfathomable
night, her thoughts again reverted to her recent experiences. It seemed
to her impossible that Sanine should not know of these, and it was just
this which made her joy the more intense. Unconsciously she longed to
make him aware that she was not always so gentle and modest, but that
she could also be something vastly different when she threw off the
mask. It was this secret longing that made her flushed and elated.
"You have known Yourii Nicolaijevitsch for a long while, haven't you?"
she asked in a faltering voice, irresistibly impelled to hover above an
abyss.