（外文电子版资料）Tolstoy, Alexei - Ordeal 03 - Bleak Morning.docVIP

ALEXEI TOLSTOY RDEAL THE SISTERS 1918 BLEAK MORNING BLEAK MORNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE Moscow 1953 TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY IVY AND TATIANA LITVINOVA BOOK DESIGN BY Y. ê?GAN ILLUMINATIONS AND TAILPIECES BY V. SVESHNIKOV Ocr: Russica Miscellanea /russica2  ...TO LIVE AS VICTORS, OR DIE GLORIOUSLY Svyatoslav* * I * There were two figures at the fire—that of a man and a woman. The chill wind from over the top of a gully in the steppe blew at their backs, whistling through the stalks of wheat, which had long shed its grain. The woman tucked her skirt over her feet, and thrust her hands into the sleeves of her coat. The woollen shawl, which fell low over her eyes, allowed nothing to be seen but the straight nose and the stubbornly closed mouth. It was not much of a fire—just a few handfuls of smouldering dung cakes picked up by the man round the cows watering place in the gully. And to make matters still worse, the wind was getting stronger. It is certainly a great deal easier to appreciate the beauties of nature when listening to the crackling of logs or looking pensively out of the window A great deal easier than in this dreary steppe—oh, God, the misery of it! It was the man speaking, in low tones which were not without a kind of bitter satisfaction. The woman turned her chin in his direction, but did not open her lips. She was worn out by the long journey on an empty stomach, and by this man, who talked so much and guessed her inmost thoughts so smugly. Tilting her head slightly backward, she gazed from beneath the overhanging shawl at the dim autumnal sunset behind the barely discernible hills—a mere slit in the clouds, casting no light over the lonely steppe. Now well bake some potatoes, Darya Dmitrevna, to gladden the inner man What you would have done without me, I cant imagine. Bending down, he selected the firmest of the dung cakes from the heap at his side, turning them this way and that in his hand before placing them carefully on the