Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories

of tiny curls on the nape of her neck where her plaits began, and

again curled herself up into a ball. 'Nothing.'

'Nothing! Then now I'll ...' Kuzma Vassilyevitch craned forward

towards Colibri but at once pulled back his hand. There was a drop of

blood on his finger. 'What foolishness is this!' he cried, shaking his

finger. 'Your everlasting pins! And the devil of a pin it is!' he

added, looking at the long, golden pin which Colibri slowly thrust

into her sash. 'It's a regular dagger, it's a sting.... Yes, yes, it's

your sting, and you are a wasp, that's what you are, a wasp, do you

hear?'

Apparently Colibri was much pleased at Kuzma Vasselyevitch's

comparison; she went off into a thin laugh and repeated several times

over:

'Yes, I will sting ... I will sting.'

Kuzma Vassilyevitch looked at her and thought: 'She is laughing but

her face is melancholy.

'Look what I am going to show you,' he said aloud.

'Tso?'

'Why do you say tso? Are you a Pole?'

'Nee.'

'Now you say nee! But there, it's no matter.' Kuzma

Vassilyevitch got out his present and waved it in the air. 'Look at

it.... Isn't it nice?'

Colibri raised her eyes indifferently.

'Ah! A cross! We don't wear.'

'What? You don't wear a cross? Are you a Jewess then, or what?'

'We don't wear,' repeated Colibri, and, suddenly starting, looked back

over her shoulder. 'Would you like me to sing?' she asked hurriedly.

Kuzma Vassilyevitch put the cross in the pocket of his uniform and he,

too, looked round.

'What is it?' he muttered.

'A mouse ... a mouse,' Colibri said hurriedly, and suddenly to Kuzma

Vassilyevitch's complete surprise, flung her smooth, supple arms round

his neck and a rapid kiss burned his cheek ... as though a red-hot

ember had been pressed against it.

He pressed Colibri in his arms but she slipped away like a snake--her

waist was hardly thicker than the body of a snake--and leapt to her

feet.

'Wait,' she whispered, 'you must have some coffee first.'

'Nonsense! Coffee, indeed! Afterwards.'

'No, now. Now hot, after cold.' She took hold of the coffee pot by the

handle and, lifting it high, began pouring out two cups. The coffee

fell in a thin, as it were, twirling stream; Colibri leaned her head

on her shoulder and watched it fall. 'There, put in the sugar ...

drink ... and I'll drink.'

Kuzma Vassilyevitch put a lump of sugar in the cup and drank it off at

one draught. The coffee struck him as very strong and bitter. Colibri

looked at him, smiling, and faintly dilated her nostrils over the edge

of her cup. She slowly put it down on the table.

'Why don't you drink it?' asked Kuzma Vassilyevitch.

'Not all, now.'

Kuzma Vassilyevitch got excited.

'Do sit down beside me, at least.'

'In a minute.' She bent her head and, still keeping her eyes fixed on

Kuzma Vassilyevitch, picked up the guitar. 'Only I will sing first.'

'Yes, yes, only sit down.'

'And I will dance. Shall I?'

'You dance? Well, I should like to see that. But can't that be

afterwards?'

'No, now.... But I love you very much.'

'You love? Mind now ... dance away, then, you queer creature.'

XXI

Colibri stood on the further side of the table and running her fingers

several times over the strings of the guitar and to the surprise of

Kuzma Vassilyevitch, who was expecting a lively, merry song, began

singing a slow, monotonous air, accompanying each separate sound,